Carly Fiorina, political pugilist
by digby
I wrote about Carly Fiorina at Salon today. The polling is all over the place so we don’t know whether or not the debate really helped her or if it was just a brief Villager crush. But it won’t matter. She’s in the race for another reason:
The other day when the donor lists to various campaigns were revealed many noticed an odd curiosity about Fiorina’s donations. A pro-Cruz super PAC controlled by millionaire Robert Mercer (who had written checks for 5 million to Cruz’s effort) sent $500,0000 to Carly Fiorina’s super PAC. How often does it happen that a PAC for one candidate helps one of its rivals in a primary campaign? But New York Times reporter Amy Chozick cleared up the mystery when she tweeted:
Fiorina finance chairs told me supporters of other candidates have thrown them $$$ to have a woman in race attacking HRC.
Now that makes sense. (And it also explains why the Koch Brothers invited her to their recent billionaire meet-and-greet.) The Republicans understand the minefield they are going to be walking if Clinton should become the first woman nominee for president of one of the two major parties. It will be helpful to have a woman on the trail making a slash and burn case against her without incurring the wrath of Clinton’s woman supporters. In her closing statement at the Kiddie Table debate that’s exactly what she promised to do:
Hillary Clinton lies about Benghazi, lies about her emails, she’s still defending Planned Parenthood and she is still her party’s frontrunner. 2016 is going to be a fight between conservatism and a Democratic Party that is undermining the very character of this nation. We need a nominee that is going to throw every punch, not pull punches. Someone who cannot stumble before he even gets into the ring.
I don’t know who she’s talking about there, but I’d guess his initials are J.E.B. She won’t, however, have the help of her 2010 campaign staff for this great crusade, however:
Twelve of about 30 people who worked on Fiorina’s failed 2010 California Senate campaign, most speaking out for the first time, told Reuters they would not work for her again. Fiorina, once one of America’s most powerful businesswomen, is now campaigning for the Republican nomination in 2016.The reason: for more than four years, Fiorina – who has an estimated net worth of up to $120 million – didn’t pay them, a review of Federal Election Commission records shows.
Normally fantastically wealthy candidates like Fiorina pay campaign debts themselves, simply in order to maintain a reputation for being something of a decent human being. Of course with Fiorina that ship sailed some time ago so perhaps she felt there was no point.
She did finally pay up just before she announced her run for president so that’s nice. One of her high level staffers said this to a Reuters reporter: “I’d rather go to Iraq than work for Carly Fiorina again.” There are probably tens of thousands of former HP employees who feel exactly the same way.