SF Gate: "Is Fiorina willing to snip another slice out of the $21 million HP golden parachute?"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Fiorina campaign: We're at a "significant financial disadvantage" in Senate race

On a day where the Washington commentariat has declared her Senate race a toss-up and after days of polls forecasting doom, Sen. Barbara Boxer got some good news: She's got more cash in the bank than GOP challenger Carly Fiorina. Way more.

According to freshly filed financial reports, Boxer raised $4.6 million in this quarter and has $11.3 million in the bank. According to her FEC statement,Fiorina raised $2.3 million and has $950,000 on hand.

The question now: Where is Carly going to get enough cash to be able to mount the major TV ad campaign it will take to topple Boxer? Boxer may be increasingly loathed -- as noted in a recent Field Poll -- but Democrats have a huge voter reg advantage in California.

Yes, she loaned her campaign $3 million in this quarter, but Carly isn't like a certain other Silicon Valley ex-CEO. She's not a billionaire, but she's got some cash. Is she willing to snip another slice out of the $21 million golden parachute she got from Hewlett-Packard? Is the national GOP going to drop money into a California race where they could get tons more TV ads in a smaller state?

For now, Team Fiorina is crying po':

"After a hard-fought and expensive primary election campaign, there's no doubt Carly begins this general election race at a significant financial disadvantage against Barbara Boxer, who has had six years to line her campaign war chest with money from her special-interest backers," statemented Fiorina campaign czar Marty Wilson.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=67993

[NBachers]

1. Go Senator Barbara Boxer!