CA-Sen: Carly Fiorina Raises $1.1 Million for Senate Campaign in Two Months While Chuck DeVore Moans

Hat Tip to my California Boomer Sooner buddy Flap

Republican United States Senate candidate Carly Fioria in San Deigo
(visitng Hawthorne Power Systems)

Remember former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina announced her candidacy for the United States Senate from California on November 4, 2009. In the meantime, she has raised over $1 million for her campaign.

From the press release:

Since the official launch of her campaign 60 days ago, support for Fiorina’s candidacy has continued to grow with more than $1 million in financial support coming in large part from Californians in nearly 500 cities and towns across the state. Eighty three percent of all donations are in amounts of less than $250 and the overall average donation amount to Carly’s campaign is less than $350. Carly’s online fundraising has raised $232,000.

In addition, Carly and her husband Frank have personally invested in her campaign. She has loaned the campaign $2.5 million. Click here to view a PDF of the summary page of Carly’s first fundraising quarter.

The Fiorina campaign reports having over $2.7 million of campaign cash on hand.

Whereas, her opponent for the Republican nomination California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore reports far less in receipts. I have reported Chuck DeVore’s lack of fundraising ability before – both here and here.

Yet, DeVore sends out his spokeshole Josh Trevino to try to spin the shortfall and his lack of campaign fundraising ability.

The DeVore campaign argues that it’s been able to do more with less, by keeping the race a dead heat despite Fiorina’s higher spending. According to the DeVore campaign, he has spent $352,000, compared to $830,000 spent by Fiorina.

“Carly Fiorina sunk well over twice the funds into her campaign, just to get to polling parity with Chuck DeVore,” DeVore spokesman Josh Trevino wrote in an email.

Trevino also cautioned that, “I wish to stress that the DeVore for California numbers here are only approximate. We don’t have final figures yet, but these are broadly correct.”

But, Chuck, Carly did not start fundraising until November of 2009 and you have been unable to raise money for over a year now.

And, what is this BS about polling parity? There hasn’t been a poll in this race for about two months and the last one only a week or so after Carly formally announced.

Keep moaning Chuck as Fiorina drops the targeted direct mail and runs television commercials while you can only twitter and watch.

LA Times: Palin to boost GOP in California legislative and congressional races

Palin may give GOP a boost
in California legislative
and congressional contests

McCain's chances of a win in the state are low,
polls show, but his running mate could lift turnout in other races.

By Cathleen Decker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Republicans who gathered in Anaheim on Saturday sought to translate their enthusiasm for the general election ticket -- specifically for vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin -- into gains in November.

In the hotel meeting rooms where the three-day state GOP convention was underway, talk bubbled about Palin. T-shirts bearing her likeness flew off the shelves -- including one with Palin's face imposed over the classic Rosie-the-Riveter pose. At least half a dozen delegates bought the $368 frame-less glasses popularized by the Alaska governor, who smiled down on them from the framed cover of Time magazine.

Late in the day, the silent auction of commemorative plaques featuring Republican notables offered loud testimony to her new place in the party: Ronald Reagan's was going for $90. John McCain's was going for $100.

And Sarah Palin's was at $200 and counting.

Shellie Whalen, a Yorba Linda mother and volunteer turned entrepreneur with her own "Palin Power" line of shirts, said that she hadn't felt a strong affinity for McCain until his selection of the Alaska governor as his running mate. In Palin, she said, she saw herself.

"She embraces her femininity, her motherhood," she said. "But she's got teeth. Just like the rest of us."

A statewide poll this week underscored the effect Palin has had on the Republican base. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, GOP satisfaction with their presidential choice has doubled since Palin joined the ticket.

Unfortunately for McCain, that has not translated into gains against Democrat Barack Obama in California, which has gone to the Democratic presidential candidate in the last four presidential elections.

Still, state Republicans were rejoicing at the possibilities. Thomas G. Del Beccaro, the state party vice chairman, said new volunteers were streaming in faster than at any time since the 2003 recall election.
Republicans, he said, were hopeful that a resulting increase in voters would help the party in legislative and congressional races where they might not have been as competitive otherwise.

"Two months ago it was slowly growing, and then it exploded" once Palin was named, he said. "Like throwing a match into a barn."

Former Gov. Pete Wilson, who spoke to delegates Saturday, praised Palin as "a woman of some considerable spunk."

"She's got guts," he said. "And she's also got intelligence."

At the same time he was praising Palin, who has been governor for less than two years, he was skewering Obama, a four-year senator, as too inexperienced to go toe-to-toe with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other world leaders.

"This is not someone who is ready to deal with someone like Putin," Wilson said of Obama. Asked later how he squared his criticism of Obama and praise of Palin, Wilson cited her executive experience.

Wilson, no stranger to fierce political fights, accused Obama of underhanded campaign tactics.

He did not offer examples, but described the Illinois Democrat as "someone who has adhered to a time-honored Democratic philosophy -- too often a philosophy that translates into, I think, the most divisive and cynical class warfare."

Wilson came under the same criticism after leading battles against illegal immigration and affirmative action.

Obama spokesman Gabriel Sanchez dismissed Wilson's claims. "Pete Wilson is the grand-daddy of divisive politics in California, " he said.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com