Are California Politics Having a Bad Hair Day?

ROSEVILLE, Calif. -- With millions out of work, soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan and an oil spill turning the Gulf of Mexico into a deep fryer, a snarky comment by Carly Fiorina, California's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, briefly snagged the political spotlight.

Unaware her microphone was turned on before a TV news interview, the former HP CEO was caught gossiping about a comment Fiorina's friend made about incumbent Barbara Boxer's hairstyle: "Laura saw Barbara Boxer briefly on television this morning and said what everyone says, 'God, what is that hair?' Soooooooo yesterday."

But California voters are brushing aside Fiorina's quip about her opponent's allegedly unfashionable hairdo.

"The whole hair issue is irrelevant," Caroline Hathaway of Fair Oaks, Calif., said. "Who cares what kind of hair any of them have?"

The candidates, Hathaway said, should focus on more serious problems, such as weaning the country from foreign oil, investing in transportation, improving the health care bill, winding down the war in Iraq and reducing unemployment.

She said she wished the media would avoid fluffy topics like hairstyles.

But the news media did jump on Fiorina's bad-hair barb, elevating it to the status of a Lindsay Lohan-style celebrity flub.

A Yahoo News search just after the hair flap turned up more than 100 pages of search results. Among the more clever headlines:

* The Week magazine website: "Will 'hair-gate' sink Carly Fiorina?"

* Jonathan Capehart's blog on the Washington Post's website: "Fiorina pulls Boxer's hair -- rhetorically speaking"

* CBS News online: "Carly Fiorina's Hairy Remark About Barbara Boxer"

* MSNBC.com: "Does Fiorina's slip show 'Mean Girls' approach?"

Some California voters said they were more upset with the news media for making a big deal about the comment than they were with Fiorina for repeating the dig about her rival's hairdo.

"This is no different from every campaign where candidates smear each other on or off mic," said Tania Fowler, a corporate business coach in Sacramento. "My problem is that the media choose to focus on these stupid remarks, and they happily side-track political issues in favor of gossip. The candidates should focus on the issues, and so should the media."

"I think the remarks were catty and stupid, but it doesn't change my opinion of her," Santa Cruz writer Kathryn McKenzie Nichols said, adding she had not planned to vote for Fiorina even before the candidate's off-mic gaffe.

So if not for coiffures, what qualities are some Californians looking for in their next U.S. senator?

Nichols, a former newspaper reporter now freelancer, said she worries about the country's staggering unemployment rate and wants a candidates who will support job-growth policies.

Tim Wilson, 42 and father of three school-aged girls, wants a candidate committed to cutting government spending and defending the United States against threats, both of which he believes will help create a more secure future for his children.

"I don't have a problem with Carly making comments on Barbara's hair," Wilson, a contract sales representative from Carmichael, Calif., said. "It's no big deal. That's just what women do to other women."