Dreaming of Carlyfornia

Mike Bloomberg and Mark Warner are two examples of wealthy business executives who have had electoral succes, but it is not always that easy- ask Al Checchi or Mitt Romney. I know Mitt was the governor in Massachusetts, but this is not a man who has successfully transitioned to politics:




Dubya Bush was a unique case- a constant business failure who ended up having electoral success. 
Carly Fiorina just might be in a class of her own. Here's how HP stock fared during her tenure as CEO:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Carly "helped John McCain by saying things like Sarah Palin couldn't run a major corporation (considering what a great job Carly did, that is really saying something).


Now Carly's running  for the US Senate in California. Her campaign website has been rightfully described as the worst campaign website ever:





Earlier  this week Carly rolled out her new attack video targeting Tom Campbell. 




 So many questions:
- Where did they get the wanna-be Morgan Freeman narrator?
- Which sheep are the ones we should aspire to be?
- Did Carly herself play the demon sheep?
- Did anyone know that there was such a thing as a demon sheep before this ad?
- How much did they pay the the demon sheep?
- Did they use their own animals or have to tell a rancher that they were creating a demon sheep political ad?


The good news is that John McCain thought she did a good job as CEO:



Meg Whitman will need to kick it up in order to keep pace with Carly.

Campbell opts for the Senate

Tom Campbell, former Congressman and Dean of the Haas School of Business (Go Bears!), has apparently switched out of the gubernatorial race and instead will attempt to be the GOP nominee against Barbara Boxer.  Campbell's a smart guy and figured out the math of running against former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner was daunting. Poizner is worth hundreds of millions and Meg is a billionaire. Campbell was by far the most experienced and intelligent of the GOP gubernatorial contenders, but he had no chance of getting his message out.

He'll be squaring off against former HP CEO Carly Fiorina and Assemblyman Chuck Devore in the Senate primary. Devore is the teabag candidate in the race and Fiorina is allegedly able to appeal to women and fiscal conservatives.

Carly was pretty much a disaster as the head of HP and McCain sidelined her from his campaign after she noted that neither McCain or Palin had the qualifications to run a large corporation. Fiorina walked away with a $21.4 million severance package when HP fired her and she has loaned her campaign $2.5 million, but she certainly does not have the ability to self-fund at the levels of Poizner or Whitman.

I was looking forward to debates between Jerry Brown and Campbell- they are the only two candidates capable of having an in-depth conversation about the massive problems facing our state. Campbell has a better shot at winning the Senate nomination and it might be easier for him to beat Boxer than Brown.

Barbara Boxer looking good for 2010

The latest polling shows Boxer with commanding leads against all her potential 2010 opponents in the Senate race:

Boxer: 54 percent
Schwarzenegger: 30 percent

Boxer: 55 percent
Carly Fiorina: 25 percent

GOP primary:

Schwarzenegger: 31 percent
Fiorina: 24 percent
Assemblyman Chuck Devore: 9 percent
Undecided: 36 percent


With previous races against Bruce Herschensohn, Matt Fong and Bill Jones, Boxer never seemed to draw the GOP's best. Or, come to think of it, maybe she did given the state of the modern day GOP in California. Arnold looked to be her most serious challenger, but she is up 24% over the decreasingly popular Governator. And I've never been one to think Arnold was really going to run for Senate. He likes to be in charge, to be the hero of his own movie. Governor is an executive position that appeals to those instincts. Being 1 of 100 Senators, debating arcane provisions of Senate procedure, is just not something I see him being interested in.