Former HP executive Carly Fiorina is trying to convince conservative California voters that she is one of them.
As she seeks the Republic nomination for U.S. Senate, Fiorina is feeling compelled to detail her views on abortion
and same-sex marriage as she tries to appeal to the right, according to Times political writer Seema Mehta. [Corrected at 3:53 p.m.: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that Fiorina was a candidate for governor.]
Part of the reason is that,
unlike her primary opponents, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore of Irvine and
former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell, Fiorina is an unknown political
quantity. She has never sought election to public office before now, so
she doesn’t have a paper trail of legislation, statements and votes, Mehta reports from the campaign trial.
Her
prepared speeches and written statements on taxes, federal spending and
the deficit are consistently conservative. But when asked about
non-fiscal issues, she sometimes veers into more moderate territory. She
said last week that she supported President Obama’s effort to repeal
"don’t ask, don’t tell," the policy excluding openly gay individuals
from military service.
The week before that, when asked for an
assessment of the president’s first year in office, she said that
although she disagreed with him on the economy and the decision to
close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, "I agree with many of the
things he’s done. … I think that he is doing everything he can to
keep the nation safe and I applaud him for that." That same
week, a recording emerged of Fiorina praising the Rev. Jesse Jackson
and saying that the nation will not be a "truly representative
democracy" until women make up half or more of elected officials.
Conservative pundits pounced, and people are still angry.
Get the latest on the campaign at California Politics, The Times’ new blog.
Photo: Carly Fiorina and John McCain. Credit: Los Angeles Times