◼ Senate candidate stumps in Arcata: Carly Fiorina touts conservative credentials in visit to North Coast
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard Posted: 05/15/2010 01:15:14 AM PDT
ARCATA -- Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina trumpeted her conservative credentials Friday, and reiterated her belief that long-time incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer is ripe to be unseated.
”I am not here to complain about Barbara Boxer, I'm here to defeat her. And I'm the only candidate in the race who can do it,” Fiorina told a group of about three dozen members of the local business community Friday.
During her remarks, Fiorina detailed her personal history, what she sees as the problems that ail California and the nation and her plans to address them. She also had some harsh words for Boxer, the incumbent who has spent 18 years in the seat Fiorina is hoping to win in November, and for Tom Campbell, who is considered her chief competition in the Republican primary.
Fiorina said Campbell is many things, but a fiscal conservative is not one of them. She also attacked Campbell's social credentials, pointing out that, in announcing his candidacy, he said he could beat Boxer in November because he is pro gay marriage and pro choice.
”Thank you very much, we don't need Barbara Boxer light,” Fiorina said.
While casting Boxer as a career politician beholden to the special interests of extreme environmentalists, Fiorina outlined what she sees as the primary problems facing the nation. She called for cutting taxes, “growing” the economy and shrinking government.
”Our government is too big, our government is too intrusive and our government is too expensive,” she said to the nodding approval of many in attendance.
If elected, Fiorina said she would work to reduce what she called “hundreds of billions” of dollars in fraud, waste and abuse in federal spending, to repeal the recently passed health care reform legislation and to amend the federal endangered species act, saying it places flies, owls and fish ahead of working families.
Fiorina began her prepared remarks Friday by talking a bit about her personal history. She worked her way through undergraduate school as a temporary secretary until she got her degree in medieval history and philosophy, which she noted left her educated but unemployable.
After a stint in law school, Fiorina said she began her career as a secretary and, eventually, worked her way up to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of the Hewlett-Packard Co., a position she held from 1999 to 2005 as the only female to lead a Fortune 20 company.
The candidate also talked briefly about her recent battle with breast cancer.
Like all tough passages in life, she said, cancer came with many blessings.
”After battling cancer, undergoing chemotherapy, losing my hair and growing it back, Barbara Boxer doesn't scare me one bit,” she said.
Thadeus Greenson can be reached at 441-0509 or tgreenson@times-standard.com.
