California Election Results: How Barbara Boxer Bucked a National Trend by Beating Carly Fiorina

AP

California is bucking the national trend by sending incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer back to Washington. (see full California Results)

In preliminary CBS News exit poll results, Californians approve of the way President Obama is handling his job (54%), which is the opposite of the national mood. Nationally 45% of all voters approve of the president's job performance. Voters in the Golden State have a more positive opinion of the Democratic Party (50%) than they have of the Republican Party (34%). (see the full exit poll)

And their feelings about the Tea Party movement are divided. Roughly a third of voters are both supporters and opponents of the movement, while 25% have no opinion. And 57% say that the Tea Party movement was not a factor in their vote for Senator on Election Day. Voters in this group lean toward Boxer.

Health care is a big issue for the Tea Party movement and the Republican Party overall. They want to repeal health care reform just passed this year in Congress. According to the CBS News exit poll, 37% want to expand the new health care law, 16% want to leave it as is and 40% want to repeal it. (Nationally, 48% want to repeal the new law).

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Among California voters who want to repeal the new law, 84% voted for Fiorina, while Boxer got most of the voters who say they are for either expanding the new health law or leaving it as is. One other major issue for both the Senate and governor's race is illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is a major issue (compared to the strong anti-immigration law in Arizona) and two-thirds of the voters support a chance for these undocumented workers to apply for legal status (and most of these voters supported Boxer).

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Election Winners and Losers

Boxer won a long, hard fought campaign to recapture her seat. She's been in office 18 years, while running against Republican candidate Carly Fiorina. Fiorina had no political experience but was CEO of Hewlett Packard. The advertising campaigns were brutal: Boxer's ads saying that Fiorina let go 30,000 jobs as CEO of HP and shipped them overseas. Fiorina's ads saying that Boxer is in office too long. accomplished nothing and is out of touch with Californians.

Unlike Californians, Fiorina was much more conservative than the constituency she wanted to serve. California is not a conservative state like Arizona and other sunbelt states and has voted for a Democratic president the last three elections - there are more registered Democrats than Republicans, yet declined-to-states (independents) are increasing each election year. Right now declined-to-states are about one out of every five voters. The issues that are important to the electorate align more with what Boxer stands for than her opponent. The Democratic senator is a strong pro-choice candidate, against off-shore oil drilling and was against the war in Iraq. The opposite of what Fiorina thinks, plus she was endorsed by Sarah Palin who has a high unfavorable rating in the state.

According to CBS News Exit Poll a look at some demographic groups that supported both candidates:

• Nearly three out of five women voters are supporting Boxer, while male voters give Boxer a slim three point advantage.
• The white vote, which is 61% of voters are backing Fiorina over Boxer (53% vs. 44%); Latinos, who make up 22% of the electorate give Boxer 68% of their vote, compared to 28% for Fiorina and 9% of the electorate is black. This group is overwhelmingly backing Boxer (82%).
• All age groups, except for those voters who are 65 and over support Boxer.
• Households with income less than $50,000 are going for Boxer almost two to one (63% vs 33%), while households earning $100,000 or more back Fiorina giving her a 10 point lead over her opponent.
• Voters in all education levels support Boxer over her opponent.
• Nearly three in 10 (27%) voters have a positive view of the way the federal government is working and they are backing Boxer overwhelmingly. Conversely, 71% of voters have a negative view of government and 56% are backing Fiorina .
• Voters think that both reducing the budget deficit and spending to create jobs should be the highest priority for the next Congress. Among those who say create jobs, almost three-quarters voted for Boxer, while those who want to reduce the deficit are giving Fiorina a slight lead - 49% to 47%.

The CBS News exit poll was conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool. Preliminary results are based on 3,809 voters in California interviewed either after exiting the polls across the state or by telephone for early voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

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The New Senators on the Block

Susan H. Pinkus is the former director of the Los Angeles Times Poll and is now doing her own public opinion research at S. H. Pinkus Research & Associates.

[RobAla]

She beat the trend due to the fact that there are still so many left wing extremists in California. These people don't seem to be concerned by the fact that progressive ideas and practices have put California into billions of dollars in the hole. They don't seem to mind that companies are running away from California as fast as possible. They just continue to dream dreams of a progressive utopia, while the state around them crumbles. It's sad.

[tsigili]

Calif. is the most liberal Dem state in the union. That's the ONLY reason she survived. It is also the primary reason Calif. has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, for years, and with Brown back in office, it is likely to happen, this time.

So much for liberalism.

[norobots]

Little Ms. Mossad "won" the same way she "wins" every race, with a special something called good old fashioned election fraud. The same way Reid steals Nevada with Rasmussen poles showing him 4-5% behind Angle only 1 week prior to election day. For the same reason, NBC, among other corporate/government media partnerships, was able to predict her win with only 17% of the votes counted while simultaneously showing on their screen that Fiorina was ahead. The same prediction was made at 20%, with Fiorina still ahead. Then the final "victory" announcement and speech was given with 36% of the votes in. That may sound like and "election" to Stalin, but to logical people that live outside San Francisco, the fraud is pretty obvious.

[formrusmcsgt]

by RobAla November 4, 2010 10:11 PM EDT "Californians are in disastrous fiscal shape from years of unsound policies, and they have just turned away 2 successful CEO businesswomen from lending their practical experience."______________________Successful business people are not forced out by their own board, twit: NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, is leaving the troubled computer maker after being forced out by the company's board.

[formrusmcsgt]

After Fiorina proved her total incompetence @ HP, I can't believe anyone would vote that type of proven incompetence into office to begin with.......

[ihatethecalilibs]

Boxer won because she is a lyin old skanky fraud.....As far as im concerned they should send the old witch to pasture along with our new joke of a governor---Jerry "the moonbeam" Brown, wow he and his dad were the worst 2 Govs, my idiotic state of Cali has ever had....Cali is now really doomed!

[Catkovacs]

Why don't you move then if you hate it so much? Also, you really show how ignorant you really are when you write a post like this and all you can do is name call. Try backing your statement up with some facts.

[RobAla]

Californians are in disastrous fiscal shape from years of unsound policies, and they have just turned away 2 successful CEO businesswomen from lending their practical experience. They might have made a difference. If the people of California want to keep more of the same, they are welcome. However, don't ask the American citizens of the other 49 states to rescue you and pay your stupid debt. We less progressive people in Alabama require our state to operate on a balanced budget. You are on your own, and you can deal with your own choices.

[ELBK]

And Barbara won, even with hair "so yesterday."

[sjc_1]

Who cares about hair except for phony shallow people. Carly was and is the Wicked Witch of the West who ruined Lucent and almost destroyed HP. She can not ruin the state nor the nation and I thank God for that.

[sjc_1]

When they canned Carly from HP the employees put "Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead" on their cellphone ringtones.

[sneak_up_on_you]

the moron AlanW is praising TEXAS? lmao

[sjc_1]

Texas has been sucking off of government defense contracts for a long time and then complaining about big government and taxes.