Matt Ortega

Headlines that have accumulated over the last couple of weeks in various California races.

CA-Senate

• Afghanistan: Chuck DeVore opposes the President's plan while Carly Fiorina supports the decision. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• Fiorina is "still making rookie mistakes." [Fox & Hounds]
  

  Last week, for example, she brushed off Irvine Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, her GOP primary opponent, by arguing at a Washington breakfast that he wouldn’t have a prayer against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer because he’s, well, a white guy.

  While Fiorina insisted that some of her best friends were white guys, she said they just can’t win against Boxer because “she knows how to beat them. She’s done it over and over and over.”

  It’s true that Bruce Herschensohn (1992) and Bill Jones (2004) were of the Anglo male persuasion, but while Matt Fong may have been called many things during his 1998 battle with Boxer, “white male” wasn’t one of them. [...]

  But Fiorina should be careful when she talks about Boxer’s ability to win elections, since, as a political first-timer, Fiorina has yet to show that she can beat anyone.

• Another rookie mistake? Fiorina says she "shares Sarah Palin's values." Values, of course, that were rebuked by the largest margin in California since the Second World War. [San Jose Mercury News]
• Fiorina was caught on a live mic after an interview with CNN's John King that he "does a great job on this show." Unsure if being an avowed CNN viewer passes the RNC's purity test. [Variety]

CA-Governor

• It looks like Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown in November, according to numbers published by Rasmussen. [Orange County Register]
• Steve Poizner stumps for his 10-10-10 plan in Napa's wine country that was blasted by conservative Mike Genest, the state's former director of finance, after it was announced. [Napa Valley Register]
• Poizner's campaign says they are "on target" but John Wildermuth thinks the letter to their "grassroots" is aimed to sooth fears that the campaign is getting crushed by Whitman's media onslaught. [Fox & Hounds]

Fact is, though, the letter reads like a hasty attempt to soothe nervous supporters, combined with a hint of whistling past the graveyard.

It’s no surprise that the grassroots GOP base Poizner has been courting since 2006 is getting antsy. They’ve been bombarded with radio ads for former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and seen polls like last month’s L.A. Times-USC survey, which not only had the state insurance commissioner running 25 points behind Whitman, but also showed him 17 points back of former San Jose Rep. Tom Campbell.

“Early and excessive spending by the Whitman campaign has had an impact on the polls,” Bognet admitted, but the polls this early are “largely meaningless.”

Especially if you’re running third in a three-person race.

• Whitman's wooing of women is a bust. [Associated Press]
  

  Whitman rarely dwells on her gender as she seeks to woo the female voters who now make up a majority of California's electorate. But when she does make that pitch, her language at times comes across as tone-deaf. A recent poll shows she is having mixed results in winning over women. [emphasis added]