I swear, there’ve been enough snide remarks from both sides of the aisle in the run-up to this primary election that I do believe I’m starting to suffer from snarkolepsy. This just in:

California Democratic Party
M E M O
To: Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman
CC: Political Reporters, Interested Parties
From: Tenoch Flores, Communications Director
Date: June 7, 2010

A friendly reminder, tomorrow is Election Day in California.

Ms. Fiorina and Ms. Whitman, do you have a nagging feeling you might be forgetting something important about tomorrow? We know your track record for voting in California elections hasn’t been much to write home about (see stats below), so your friends at the California Democratic Party are here to walk you through the process. After all, we’re Democrats, we believe that every vote, even those cast by multimillionaires and billionaires, should count.

Carly Fiorina: Since moving to California, you have voted in only 7 of 22 elections for a total of only 32%.

Meg Whitman: Since moving to California, you have voted in only 8 of 19 elections for a total of only 42%.

We hope you find that voting is easy and rewarding, even for newbies! In case you need any help, here’s our step-by-step guide of how to vote tomorrow:

1.) Arrive at your polling place – try to get there early. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. As long as you’re in line by 8 p.m., your vote will be counted. California law ensures that all people are able to vote, even wealthy self-funded candidates.
2.) Choose the best candidate. This will be tricky for you, since neither of you can vote in the Democratic primary and thus will not be able to vote for candidates working hard to create jobs and turn our economy around.
3.) Put your completed ballot in the ballot box. After you have cast your ballot, the poll workers will then give you a sticker that you can wear proudly all day long to show you voted. Be sure to show your sticker to those pesky reporters and members of the media who keep asking questions about your voting record in California, or lack there of.

Congratulations! You did it this time!

Add 2004 Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to the chorus of party, environmental and other voices knocking Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina for her attack this week on incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s national security record.

Fiorina released a television ad Wednesday mocking Boxer’s 2007 identification of climate change as a national security issues. “Terrorism kills, and Barbara Boxer is worried about the weather,” Fiorina says in the ad.

Boxer – who had been letting most of her Republican rivals’ jibes pass without comment as they duke it out in the primary – jumped all over it, as did the California Democratic Party; Media Matters for America; the Truman National Security Project, “training a new generation of progressives to lead on national security;” and now, Kerry.

Kerry’s comments came in an e-mail soliciting contributions both for Truth Fights Back, his committee that’s “restoring truth to the energy and climate change debate,” and for Boxer’s re-election campaign:

I had to forward this because some things just can’t be allowed to stand in American politics – you have to do more than respond – you have to make the opposition pay for peddling the kind of malarkey that does our country a disservice. I just got this email from my friend Barbara Boxer in California. She’s under attack for telling the truth: that climate change is a national security issue. Her opponent – how predictable! – says Barbara is “worried about the weather.”

Just last week, you probably remember me fighting this fight with some guy from a conservative “think tank.” Now Barbara is fighting it with her Republican opponent, Carly Fiorina. But Carly isn’t just disagreeing with Barbara – she’s mocking the words and findings of the Pentagon, the CIA, analysts in the Bush Administration, generals like Anthony Zinni, Admirals like William Fallon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and, oh, gee, literally hundreds of other national security experts.

Stand up for the truth and hit back in a way that counts: You can click below to give to Barbara’s campaign to help her fight back, and you can click here to help us at TruthFightsBack fight back for the truth everywhere we can.

We’re sending $1 billion a day overseas to feed our oil addiction, repressive states like Iran are using the oil income to fund their schemes, climate change threatens the stability of nations around the globe, and folks like Carly Fiorina talk about the weather. Stand up for a Senate that stands for the truth and debates real issues.

Generals and Admirals stand with Barbara. A bunch of Republican one-line writers stand with Carly. Who are you gonna stand with?

Kerry’s comments aside, the more I think about Fiorina’s ad, the less sense it makes to me. Never mind that it comes from someone who herself said just two years ago that “the issues of climate change and energy independence are inextricably linked,” and also called a cap-and-trade system an effort to “provide the incentives of a private marketplace to encourage people to innovate and also to encourage people to find new ways of reducing their greenhouse emissions. I’m a businessperson, I know that incentives and competition in the private marketplace work.”

No, what bugs me is the ad’s apparent political tone-deafness. She targets Boxer as if she’s already the GOP nominee, yet she’s still tacking pretty far to the right with a stance that’s popular in next week’s primary but probably won’t get her very far with the independent voters she’ll need in order to beat Boxer come November.

True, by calling out Boxer before the primary, Fiorina got Boxer and the rest to respond to her as the presumptive nominee – but that could be what Boxer wants. Fiorina is better-funded than either of her GOP rivals, but a lot of analysts believe Tom Campbell would pose a bigger threat to Boxer by attracting more independents with his somewhat more moderate social stances. “Tom Campbell is Barbara Boxer’s worst nightmare,” Center for Governmental Studies President Bob Stern told the Los Angeles Times this week. And indeed, at least one recent, prominent poll showed Campbell as the only Republican defeating Boxer in a hypothetical November match-up.

Sure, this and other polls show Fiorina surging and Campbell fading in next week’s primary, but Fiorina’s ad might’ve let Boxer go a little way toward choosing her general-election opponent. Only time will tell whom this ad helped the most.

The primary election hasn’t happened yet, but U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer is starting to rise to some of the barbs leveled by the Republicans vying to challenge her in November.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina launched her fifth ad of the season today, a 30-second spot called “Safe” which attacks Boxer’s national security record:

“Californians cannot risk another six years of Barbara Boxer’s misguided priorities, ineffectiveness and extreme partisanship,” Fiorina campaign spokeswoman Julie Soderlund said in a release announcing the ad. “While the men and women serving in our armed forces are fighting terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barbara Boxer seems to think that climate change is the real threat to our national security. This is one of many examples of her out-of-step priorities, which make her a vulnerable incumbent this year.”

Boxer’s campaign hasn’t responded to many ads so far, but it jumped all over this one.

“Fiorina’s latest negative attack ad once again gets it wrong,” Boxer campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski said in a statement e-mailed this afternoon. “There is a clear choice in this race when it comes to strengthening national security and fighting terrorism. Senator Boxer has successfully advocated for tough measures to protect America – from sanctions on Iran to allowing specially-trained pilots to have guns in the cockpit. Meanwhile, Fiorina has a troubling record on protecting Americans from terrorism. She supports allowing people on the no-fly list to buy guns and during her tenure at HP the company was trading with Iran, a State Sponsor of Terror.”

UPDATE @ 3:31 P.M. WEDNESDAY: Now the California Democratic Party is getting in on the act, too. “Fiorina is in no position to assail Senator Boxer’s record,” communications director Tenoch Flores said in an e-mail. “After all we’re talking about someone who is so far out of the mainstream that she believes it’s ok to let people on the no-fly list walk into a gun show and purchase an assault rifle. That’s wrong-headed and dangerous.”

Former Congressman, Cal business school dean and state finance director Tom Campbell will spend the final week of the Republican U.S. Senate primary emphasizing the fact that polls show he’s the only one who can beat U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in November, he told reporters on a conference call a few minutes ago.

But he’ll be doing so on a shoestring, while the candidate whom the latest poll shows in the lead – former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina – spends heavily on television ads. Campbell, whose campaign coffers are largely tapped out, will spend the week hitting GOP strongholds around the state in search of last-minute contributions and media attention.

A USC/Los Angeles Times poll released over the weekend showed Fiorina at 38 percent, Campbell at 23 percent and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, at 16 percent.

“As an outsider and fiscal conservative, Carly is the candidate who will go to Washington and refuse to become part of what Ronald Reagan once called ‘the Washington buddy system,’ “ Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund had said Saturday. “One-time front runner Tom Campbell has seen his fortunes fade as we predicted because he could run on name identification, but could not run from his 20-year record of support for higher taxes and bigger government.”

But that same poll also showed only Campbell beating Boxer in a hypothetical November match-up, 45 percent to 38 percent; the poll showed Boxer beating Fiorina by 6 percentage points and DeVore by 10. That’s what he’s playing up in a new video, released today, that he hopes will go viral:

“Those who are undecided I think are likely pragmatic voters, and so we make the pragmatic argument: If you want to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer, there’s one candidate who has a very good chance of doing so,” Campbell said on today’s conference call. “I win if I get that message out.”

Campbell also reiterated his history as a fiscal conservative, and highlighted some of the differences between him and Boxer: his support of constitutional limits on spending; his approval of Arizona’s immigration law; his support for trying terrorism suspects in military tribunals and keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention facility open; his opposition to a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and his opposition to confirming Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

No matter who the nominee turns out to be, the poll held some bad news for Republicans: It showed that Californians overwhelmingly want a senator who’ll support President Barack Obama’s policies. In fact, among decline-to-state voters who’ll be November’s crucial swing vote, a senator backing Obama won the support of 56 percent, compared to 29 percent for a senator who would oppose him.

“Whenever he’s right, I’m with him,” Campbell quipped when asked about this, noting it’s vital for the GOP nominee not to come across as closed-minded.

He cited his support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program instituted by President George W. Bush and continued by President Obama to stabilize the nation’s financial industry in late 2008 and 2009, as well as his record in Congress and the state Senate of seeking solutions across the aisle. “I think those who know my record know I’m interested in finding common ground for the good of the state and the good of the country.”

We’re putting together an extensive report for tomorrow’s editions on the campaign finance reports due today, but for now, the breaking news seems to be that Tom Campbell raised more money in the most recent period and had more cash on hand at the period’s end than Carly Fiorina, his rival for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

Campbell reported raising $989,662 since mid-March from April 1 to May 19, with $975,271 cash on hand reported in today’s filing.

“We are continuing to raise money and buy TV airtime for the home stretch,” Campbell spokesperson James Fisfis said in a news release. “Our opponent, Carly Fiorina, is a failed CEO who sent thousands of California jobs overseas. Moreover, she rarely bothered to vote. Tom Campbell will be traveling around California for the next two weeks communicating his message that he is the only Republican in the race who will end Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate career.”

Fiorina reported raising $909,000 (though she also loaned her campaign another $1.1 million), with $620,000 cash on hand as of this filing.

“I am humbled and honored to have received the support of so many dedicated people around California and across the nation,” Fiorina said in a news release. “Recent polling confirms that the hard work our financial supporters, grassroots volunteers and dedicated campaign team members have together invested in the race is paying off. Californians increasingly recognize that I am the Republican candidate best positioned to defeat Barbara Boxer in November. We expect this momentum to continue growing in the final days before the primary election and into the general election this fall.”

We’re still waiting for numbers from the third Republican in the race, Chuck DeVore…

UPDATE @ 4:19 P.M.: DeVore raised $520,898 in this period, finishing with $276,614 cash on hand.

UPDATE @ 6:09 P.M.: Fiorina’s campaign hastens to note that she has loaned her campaign another $1.9 million since May 19, the end of the reporting period, so she has plenty of money for significant television advertising between now and the June 8 election. Campbell’s campaign, they note, cancelled its LA-area television ad buy for this weekend.

“As far as we can tell, team Campbell is working their abacus overtime to make it appear as if they have significant funds heading into the final stretch,” said Fiorina spokeswoman Julie Soderlund. “But my calculator is telling me their numbers just don’t quite add up.”

So, yes, Fiorina has more money on hand for the final 10 days before the election. Nonetheless, Campbell attracted more in total contributions than Fiorina did during this reporting period.

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein were joined by their fellow Senators from Oregon and Washington today in introducing a bill to permanently prohibit offshore drilling on the outer continental shelf off the West Coast.

The lawmakers said the bill – inspired by the ongoing economic and environmental disaster of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico – would amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently protect the $34 billion coastal economies of the three states, which support nearly 570,000 jobs.

“We simply cannot afford the risk posed by oil drilling off our magnificent coast. Nearly 570,000 jobs and our vital coastal economy would not survive an environmental disaster like the one we’re seeing now along the Gulf Coast,” Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in the news release.

“Offshore oil drilling carries with it real risk,” said Feinstein. “The voters of California have voted that they don’t want offshore oil drilling, and I don’t want offshore drilling. Now we know what the potential is for catastrophe and we have to see that it never, ever happens again. Therefore, I’m very happy to join with Senator Boxer and others on this legislation to permanently ban all new offshore oil and natural gas along the West Coast.”

Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, issued a statement thanking the Senators for introducing the bill, which is companion legislation to a House bill he introduced last week.

“To date we have 28 cosponsors, and all coastal districts from the Canadian border to Monterey support our bill. We have allies on the East Coast and federal territories, and more than 20 environmental organizations have lined up behind this critical legislation,” he said in his release. “I look forward to working with our friends in both houses of Congress to put this legislation on the President’s desk. The public now understands the horrifying consequences of offshore oil drilling, and I’m convinced the tide has turned.”

But former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, now vying for the Republican nomination in June to challenge Boxer in November, said the bill is “the height of political posturing.

“Not only does her proposal demonstrate her willingness to pander to the far left environmental lobby, but also her willingness to ignore the will of the people she was elected to represent. The people of this country recognize the economic benefits of oil drilling, and 60 percent of Americans – including me – continue to support it,” Fiorina said.

“There’s already a moratorium on new off-shore oil development in California. The moratorium is renewable because it gives policy makers a chance to regularly revisit the issue to assess both our nation’s need for new oil development and our capacity to deliver it safely. A proposal for a permanent ban is shortsighted because it assumes we will never need new energy supplies and deprives future generations of the opportunity to make that decision.”

The full word is in on President Barack Obama’s visit to San Francisco later this month to raise money for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s re-election campaign and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the word is “ch-ching!!!”

The tickets to the cocktail reception at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, at the Fairmont Hotel atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill cost $250, $500 or $2,000 each, depending on where you want to stand or sit. But the big money will come at the 5:30 p.m. photo reception and dinner at the home of billionaire oil heir Gordon Getty and his wife, Ann, where it’ll be $35,200 per couple. The fundraisers make a point of noting an individual can give as much as $45,200 to California Senate 2010 while a couple can give as much as $90,400, so they’re clearly aiming for the deepest of the deep pockets.

How does that big money get broken down? The fine print says “(t)he first $4,800 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Friends of Barbara Boxer. The first $2,400 of each contribution will be considered designated for the primary election; the second $2,400 will be considered designated for the general election. The next $30,400 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Inc. The next $10,000 of each contribution from a person will be allocated to the Democratic State Central Committee of California-Federal. Any contributor may designate his or her contribution for a particular participant.”

Meanwhile, Boxer had nothing but praise today for the president’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Solicitor General and former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan:

“I congratulate Solicitor General Elena Kagan on her nomination to the United States Supreme Court.

“From what I have seen thus far, Elena Kagan understands the fundamental promise of our Constitution, which is equality, justice and fairness for all Americans. She has a proven ability to reach across ideological lines, which is so important so we can build consensus.

“Elena Kagan has broken barriers throughout her career – as the first female dean of Harvard Law School, the first female Solicitor General and potentially the fourth woman to sit on the Supreme Court. Her confirmation would be historic, marking the first time that three female Justices have served together on the nation’s highest court.

“I look forward to learning more about Solicitor General Kagan’s views and record during her confirmation hearing.”

Meanwhile, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina – one of the candidates vying for the GOP nomination in June to challenge Boxer in November – was sounding the alarm:

“The American people should have the confidence that the next member of the Supreme Court will impartially serve and work to uphold the Constitution rather than legislate from the bench. It is crucial that the Senate Judiciary Committee subject Ms. Kagan to a rigorous confirmation process so that we can learn more about her background, views and the approach she would take to adherence to the Constitution as a member of our nation’s highest court. Given Ms. Kagan’s brief litigation experience, lack of any judicial experience and in light of some of the information publicly available about her record, the Senate must ensure a confirmation process that is fair, tough and includes a close examination of her career, writings and public statements.

“While I will reserve judgment as to whether or not I will support Ms. Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court until the public vetting and confirmation process has been completed, I do find some of the available information about her past record troubling. Specifically, the extent to which her effort to keep military recruiters off Harvard’s campus was motivated by her own political views rather than by following the law of the land may indicate a potential activist mentality I do not believe is appropriate for the Court.

“The job of a U.S. senator is to advise and consent to the nominations to the Supreme Court made by the President. In deciding to support or oppose a nomination as a member of the U.S. Senate, I would require a record showing adherence to the Constitution and proof the nominee would not use the bench to legislate or attempt to interpret the Constitution based on his or her own political philosophy.”

The other GOP candidates for U.S. Senate, Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore, are similarly unimpressed, according to the Chronicle’s Joe Garofoli.

I’ve just filed a story about U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer’s news conference this morning in San Francisco, wherein she touted the financial reform legislation now pending in the Senate. She made a point of citing the Senate’s 96-1 vote last week on her amendment providing that all financial companies put into receivership under the reform law shall be liquidated, with no taxpayer funds used to prevent such liquidation; only disposition of the company’s assets or a tax or fee on the financial industry could be used. That is, no taxpayer bailouts.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the candidates vying for the Republican nomination in June to challenge Boxer in November, issued a statement last week knocking Boxer’s stance:

“In yet another display of Election Year opportunism, Barbara Boxer today boasted about the passage of her amendment to the financial reform bill, pointing to it as an example of how she puts taxpayers first. Let’s be clear: her authorship of this amendment is more a reflection of the Democratic Party’s attempt to prop her up, rather than any sign of a core conviction. The truth is that Barbara Boxer has voted for every possible bailout, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. These measures have failed to create jobs and have resulted in higher deficits, more debt and will mean higher taxes.

“If Barbara Boxer is truly concerned about protecting taxpayers, she should stop her Election Year grandstanding and get down to the hard work of lowering taxes, cutting spending and minimizing uncertainty in the regulatory environment.”

Someone at today’s news conference asked Boxer whether she thinks voters will hold against her this year the government’s lack of oversight and foresight leading up to the financial sector’s collapse and resultant recession.

She also had already said in response to another question that the financial sector bailout bill that established the oft-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was passed at the behest of the Bush Administration, after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson implored the Senate to do so lest the entire economy collapse. Although the big banks have repaid most of their TARP debts, she said, “absolutely there’s tremendous blame to go around.”

She had said she regretted not having done more to ensure the Federal Reserve used the authority it was given in the ‘90s to go after predatory lenders; she said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would be created by the pending legislation would be tasked only with such duties, whereas it was an ancillary duty for the Fed. “We need to now make sure all the powers we give this new agency are used in a fair and just way.”

But when the question of her re-election came up, she said she’s excited about her campaign and her record of fighting on behalf of consumers, families, workers and the environment.

“Will this be a hard race? Oh my God, yes,” she said, insisting she’s ready to take on whomever the GOP nominee turns out to be.

Recent polls show former Congressman, business-school dean and state finance director Tom Campbell leading Fiorina and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, in the GOP primary, and edging closest to Boxer in a hypothetical November match-up.

The disastrous oil spill still in progress in the Gulf of Mexico has further fueled the already-hot debate over drilling off California’s coast, with some significant disagreements on what lessons we should take.

Attorney General candidate and Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, hosted a field hearing of his Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee today in Hermosa Beach to talk about public health and environmental threats posed by oil drilling. Testimony was given by representatives from regulators, the oil industry, environmental and community groups and local governments.

“Today’s hearing further highlights the need for the State of California to provide enhanced protections for the public from the dangers posed by oil drilling in California,” Nava said in a news release. “Many parts of the state are impacted by oil development and drilling. Whether it is Hermosa Beach and Baldwin Hills in Los Angeles County or Santa Barbara (the proposed location of the first new drilling in California Sanctuary Act waters in 41 years), it is imperative that the public is protected. We must make sure that we do not expose Californians to the type of catastrophe that is currently occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.”

Nava said information today will be used to improve state regulations and close gaps in the existing permitting process, and will be the basis for protecting the California environment and public from abusive oil industry practices.

Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina today said on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” that while she might not be of Sarah Palin’s “drill, baby, drill” ilk, “what I would say is I believe that the United States of America needs to take advantage of every source of domestic energy we have. We ought to take advantage of oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and, yes, sun and wind and all the rest of it. But if we are serious about growing our economy and lessening our dependence on foreign oil, then offshore drilling has to be part of that equation.

“And I would hope that people wouldn’t use this tragedy — it’s both an economic tragedy and an environmental tragedy — to politicize the notion and say, ‘See, see, it can’t be done safely.’ The truth is it is being done safely in many places,” Fiorina said.

She called the gulf spill “a very troublesome situation. And while I support offshore drilling if it can be done in an environmentally safe way — and most of the time it is — certainly technology has come a long way. An accident like this shakes people to the core, no question. I believe it should be up to the voters of each state. Interestingly, in the last five years, the voters of California have come to favor, by a majority, offshore drilling.”

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina held a conference call with reporters a short while ago to trash-talk President Barack Obama’s visit to California today to raise money for incumbent U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., but not all of her facts stand up to scrutiny.

“The president is out here today because Barbara Boxer is vulnerable and the Democratic establishment is working overtime to prop her up in a way it has never done before,” Fiorina said, noting that along with last week’s announcement that Dianne Feinstein is chairing Boxer’s re-election campaign, “we are witnessing a rescue mission in action.”

Fiorina then said Boxer is vulnerable due to policies such as health care reform – “a cynical and partisan piece of work that was hastily written” – that President Obama has pushed with her support. But Fiorina doesn’t seem to grasp where most Californians stand on this. A Field Poll last month – just before the legislation passed – showed voters evenly split in their assessment of Obama’s handling of the issue of health care (45 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving), an improvement from January when more voters disapproved by a 53 percent to 39 percent margin. Even the latest poll from the somewhat rightward-leaning Rasmussen Reports shows that support for the health care reform plan is stronger in California than it is nationwide, with 50 percent of California voters thinking it’ll be good for the country – that’s 11 points higher than results found on the national level – while 41 percent think it’ll be bad.

Fiorina also noted public frustration over a national debt that has reached record levels under President Obama, yet failed to mention that the debt grew from about $5.73 trillion to about $10.63 trillion under Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, due in part to his tax cuts for the wealthy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fiorina challenged Obama and Boxer to explain to voters exactly how the economic stimulus bill they championed is helping California. But Boxer has been proudly doing that for about a year; her website is replete with pages and news releases touting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s tax relief, infrastructure spending and job creation for Californians.

Fiorina cited California’s still-high unemployment rate, 12.6 percent. But as the Obama supporters at Organizing for America would note:

“I don’t think the people of California are in any mood to extend Barbara Boxer’s contract to work for them in Washington to 34 years when her first 28 have been a total failure,” Fiorina concluded, saying she believes Californians are “angry and frustrated that these policies will do nothing but feed the growth of government by increasing taxes and costing jobs.”

I asked her how President Obama’s fundraising for Boxer is any more desperate than the fundraising that U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom California and U.S. voters rejected in Obama’s favor just 18 months ago, did for Fiorina here in California just two weeks ago.

“I think the president’s time is quite a bit different than any senator’s time,” she replied, noting she’s embroiled in a heated primary while Obama is stumping for Boxer way before the general election season. “I think his visit speaks for itself and I think the polls speak for themselves too.”

But those polls look better for Tom Campbell, Fiorina’s GOP primary rival, and for Boxer than they do for Fiorina.