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• LA Times, USC to launch new political poll
  The Los Angeles Times and the University of Southern California announced today that they will co-sponsor six statewide public opinion polls leading up to the 2010 election.

  "In a state as large and diverse as California, accurate and timely polling is a key tool to allow people to learn what their fellow Californians think about major issues. Making that sort of information available is a central part of our journalistic mission," Times editor Russ Stanton said in a statement.

  The polls, which will ask Californians about a variety of political, social and cultural issues, will be released over the next 14 months. Professors from the USC Department of Political Science will work with the Times on the project, and discussions on methodology and analysis of the poll results will be incorporated into graduate and undergraduate classes at USC, according to a press release.

  The results of the first poll are set to be released in Sunday's Los Angeles Times.

  (tags: Los_Angeles_Times USC)
• Will Bob Hertzberg consider the 2010 Democrat governor's race and challenge Jerry Brown?
  State AG Jerry Brown told reporters Tuesday that — though he's not yet ready officially to declare his 2010 gubernatorial candidacy — his wife, attorney Anne Gust, is already interviewing staffers for key positions.

  His Democratic campaign, he said, "would be a collaborative undertaking with a number of people offering their services as citizens — as opposed to paid consultants."

  But the Brown preparations haven't stopped the gossip about the longshot possibility that other Dems could still make this interesting — and get into the race.

  Chief among the names mentioned: former CA Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg.

  (tags: Jerry_Brown Robert_Hertzberg)
• An Interview With Carly Fiorina, Candidate For United States Senate
  Today is going to be a big day for Carly Fiorina. The former Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett Packard from 1999 through 2005 will make it official that she is a candidate for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. Her goal is to retire the ultra-liberal and ineffective incumbent, Barbara Boxer, next November.
  (tags: carly_fiorina)
• Carly Fiorina: Why I'm running for Senate
  This is what motivates me to run for the U.S. Senate. And so today I am announcing my candidacy to serve the people of California as your next U.S. senator.

  Throughout my career I've brought people together, and I've solved problems. And that is what is needed in our government today. People who are willing to set aside ego and partisanship and instead work to develop solutions to our problems.

  Our most pressing problems today are too few jobs for Americans and too much spending in Washington. As California's senator, economic recovery and fiscal accountability will be my priorities. I will not settle for a jobless recovery. And we can start the important work of getting our financial house back in order by demanding to know where our money is being spent. Let's put every government budget and every government bill on the Internet for every citizen to see.

  (tags: carly_fiorina)
• Meg Whitman's campaign spending is causing a stir
  The Republican gubernatorial candidate in California has spent $19 million so far, with the election still seven months away. Her pace is called 'unprecedented' by one campaign veteran.
  Whitman's pace is "unprecedented spending for a California gubernatorial race," said Jude Barry, campaign manager for the last mega-rich candidate to run for governor, Steve Westly.

  She spent almost as much on chartered jets ($111,706) as Campbell spent in total ($147,030) from January through June, the latest financial reporting period. Her Internet operation cost nearly $1 million. "Nowhere near that has been spent in the past in any campaign that I've ever seen," veteran GOP consultant Richard Temple said of Whitman's Web platform.

  The Poizner campaign, in comparison, spent $106,000 on technology.

  (tags: Meg_Whitman)
• Carly Fiorina announcement is imminent, setting up an intriguing Senate race against Barbara Boxer
  After months of hints and trial balloons, one of Silicon Valley's most recognizable and controversial figures has finally decided to take the plunge into politics, and California could be in for a roller-coaster ride of a political race over the next year.

  Republican Carly Fiorina, the dynamic former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, is expected to launch her bid for the U.S. Senate this week, possibly at an appearance today in Orange County. Assuming she wins the primary, political analysts say she could give three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer the run of her life.

  A Fiorina-Boxer race would offer no shortage of rich story lines — corporate heavyweight vs. Washington insider, a woman recovering from breast cancer vs. one known for women's issues, an aggressive business executive vs. a combative politician.

  (tags: carly_fiorina barbara_boxer)

Here is the video of today’s announcement speech and townhall by former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina who today announced her candidacy to replace California Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer next year.

Watch it all.

Read a good interview of Fiorina by California Republican Party Vice Chairman, Jon Fleischman here.

This is going to be a down and dirty campaign for California U.S. Senate, folks.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina launched an uphill campaign Wednesday to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, aggressively portraying herself as a business-savvy problem solver who would impose fiscal discipline on a profligate Congress.

The 55-year-old Republican and political neophyte — her once curly blond hair closely cropped and graying after a recently completed round of chemotherapy for breast cancer — wasted no time taking the fight to Boxer, calling her a do-nothing career politician whose actions have saddled the country with debt and stifled job creation. She charged that Boxer has authored only three bills that became law during her 17 years as a senator — including one that named a courthouse and another that named a river.

“Sometimes I wonder whether California even has two U.S. senators,” Fiorina told a roomful of employees and others at a green products company in Garden Grove as she announced her Senate bid. “There’s Dianne Feinstein and then there’s what’s-her-name.”

Carly Fiorina says she knows how to take a punch as well as deliver one and Flap believes it. Incumbent Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer has been well known as a fierce and competitive campaigner. Boxer may have met her match this time around.

“I have to say that after chemotherapy, Barbara Boxer just isn’t that scary anymore,” Fiorina said, in one of several mentions of her battle with breast cancer this year. “She has always taken the low road to higher office, so get ready. But I can take a punch, and I can throw a punch.”

But first, Fiorina will have to get past fellow Republican Chuck DeVore who Fiorina said today has mischaracterized her stance on the issues.

Let the Senate race begin.

Flap thinks California is going to see a United States Senate race like no other in recent California history – wild, expensive, down and dirty.

Update:

Here is some video of Carly Fiorina attacking Barbara Boxer today.

• Senate Republicans boycott climate meeting — Shun Sen Barbara Boxer
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged Congress to take dramatic action to stop climate change, but the political difficulties were evident as Republicans boycotted a Senate committee meeting on a global warming bill.

  "We cannot afford missing the objectives in climate protection," Merkel said at a joint session of Congress. "The world will look to us, to the Europeans and to the Americans."

  Just before Merkel's speech, Republicans shunned the meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee to protest the refusal of Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to order a full new analysis of the legislation. The walkout stalled action on the 959-page bill.

  (tags: barbara_boxer Climate_Change GOP)
• Where’s Mitt Romney in NY-23?
  In October, everybody seemed to be doing it — getting into the campaign in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, that is. It was a three-way race among Republican Deirdre Scozzafava, Democrat Bill Owens, and Conservative Doug Hoffman to fill the seat that had been left vacant when President Obama tapped Republican John McHugh as secretary of the Army. Endorsements became such a popular sport for out-of-state Republicans that the special election came to seem a litmus test for conservatives looking at the 2012 presidential race.
  (tags: Mitt_Romney Dede_Scozzafava Doug_Hoffman)
• Sen. Barbara Boxer Presses Ahead With Climate Change Markup – Despite GOP Boycott
  The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee went ahead and launched its markup of Chairman Barbara Boxer’s (D-Calif.) climate change legislation Tuesday morning, despite a boycott by a majority of the panel’s Republicans.
  (tags: barbara_boxer Climate_Change)
• California Sen. Barbara Boxer considers climate power play – Poisons the Waters
  Barbara Boxer may not only force her climate bill through the Environment and Public Works Committee without any Republican votes; aides say she could also do it without any Republicans in the room at all.

  Boxer (D-Calif.) could exploit a loophole in committee rules that will allow her to approve the bill with a simple majority of the 12 Democrats on the committee, even if no Republicans are present. Republicans have vowed to boycott the proceeding.

  This end run around Republicans — ignoring the usual rules that require at least two Republicans to be present for a quorum — could further hinder the chances for an already troubled cap-and-trade bill.

  “From our viewpoint, such an approach would severely damage, rather than help, the chances of enacting changes to our nation’s climate and energy policies,” wrote the top GOP senators on the six committees with jurisdiction over climate change legislation.

  (tags: barbara_boxer Climate_Change)
• GOP warns Sen. Barbara Boxer on climate bill
  The top Republicans on six committees with jurisdiction over the Senate climate bill have sent a letter to Environment and Public Works committee Chairman Barbara Boxer urging her to back off of her decision to force the bill through the committee without Republican participation.

  Democrats will need bipartisan support to overcome a possible filibuster of the legislation when it reaches the full Senate. Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.), and Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.) have been working to build GOP support for the bill.

  But Boxer’s push to pass the bill out of committee, warn Republicans, could backfire.

  (tags: barbara_boxer)
• Major components of water overhaul pass California Senate
  The California Senate on Monday approved major portions of a plan to overhaul the state's water system, putting the Legislature close to agreement after years of discussions about updating the aging infrastructure.
  Legislative leaders say their proposals create "coequal goals" of a more reliable water supply system for the state and a restored ecosystem in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Senate approved a $9.99 billion bond, a new state agency for the delta and a strict water conservation mandate.
  (tags: California_Water_Bonds California_Water)