Senate hopeful attacks Boxer in Bakersfield
| Friday, Dec 18 2009 05:03 PM
Last Updated Friday, Dec 18 2009 07:01 PM
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Felix Adamo/ The Californian U.S. senate candidate Carly Fiorina walks with Kern Machinery president Clayton Camp as she goes to meet the media.
Felix Adamo/ The Californian U.S. senate candidate Carly Fiorina and Kern Machinery president Clayton Camp chat before meeting the local media.
Felix Adamo/ The Californian Carly Fiorina, U.S. senate canidate.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina made a quick stop here Friday, picking Kern Machinery in east Bakersfield as the public base from which she launched an attack on sitting Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Fiorina, the former CEO of computer giant Hewlett-Packard, never spoke the name of her Republican primary opponent Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine.
Instead Fiorina focused on developing conservative credentials with Kern County Republicans by attacking Boxer.
She criticized the senator for failing to pursue a one-year exemption from endangered species rules that limit the amount of water that can be sent to Southern California from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
"This is an issue that I would not let go unresolved," she said. "Throughout my career I have been a problem-solver."
She blamed "nameless, faceless bureaucrats" for creating environmental rules that put the health of fish species over the economic health of Central Valley farmers and workers.
"Of course the persistent drought plays into this," Fiorina said. But "In the real world we kinda use our common sense."
Boxer's office responded with a long list of water legislation the senator has crafted or supported.
"Senator Boxer has a long record of working to make sure California communities get the water they need," said Zachary Coile, a Boxer spokesman.
Coile said Boxer has supported a study on the Endangered Species Act biological opinions that are the basis of limited water releases from the Delta designed to protect the endangered delta smelt.
"With this information, we need to come together, across party lines, to develop solutions that respect all stakeholders and regions in the state," he said.
And he pointed to legislation Boxer and fellow California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have authored to fight the state's water crisis in the short-term by reducing regulation on water transfers in the San Joaquin Valley.
"Obviously that's a good thing," Fiorina said Friday.
But, she said, Boxer needs to do more to handle the short-term water problem while a long-term solution is developed.
Fiorina hailed recent action by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state Legislature to pass a series of water infrastructure bills. She said she supports the $11.1 billion bond that Californians will have to pass next year to pay for it.
DeVore, Fiorina's primary opponent, said he opposes the bond because it's filled with political pork such as bike trails in Lake Tahoe.
"We're about ready to drown in debt in California," he said.
DeVore said Fiorina shares nearly identical stances to his on conservative issues but, in her case, those stances are new developments.
Following the election of President Barack Obama and the revolt from the right, DeVore said, "Carly Fiorina has moved to the right to occupy my position."
He noted her tendency not to mention his candidacy and focus, instead, on Boxer.
"I think that she needs to, perhaps, not count her chickens before they hatch," he said.
Local political consultants said Fiorina's visit was aimed at connecting with Kern County's conservative voters on a hair-trigger local issue.
"My guess is that she is in the race to win and wants to focus immediately on the real goal -- sending Barbara Boxer into an overdue retirement," said Kern County Republican political consultant Tracy Leach, who met Fiorina with a group of business people last week.
Leach said Fiorina's outsider status and business background play well here.
"I believe she is smart to visit the Central Valley - as a business person and non-politician she is in a region that is especially fed up with politicians, business-as-usual and ever-expanding government," Leach said. "Bakersfield is likely to appreciate or at least respect an accomplished individual from the private sector jumping into the political fray right now."
