California U.S. Senate Candidates Carly Fiorina and Chuck DeVore: Will the Real Conservative Please Stand Up?

Roseville, California -- In the old TV game show, To Tell the Truth, three people -- the real person and two "imposters" -- would claim to be someone and a panel of contestants would vote on which of the people was "real" and which were imposters. California's conservative Republicans are playing a real-life game of To Tell the Truth, with former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore duking it out in front of California Republican primary voters in a tightly contested match to convince the state's conservative Republicans that each is the more conservative of the two.

Ironically, as soon as one of these "contestants" wins the nomination, he or she will have to zag quickly to the left to capture the hearts and minds of California's general election voters, a finicky group that tends to be fiscally conservative (except when it comes to getting their own government services) but socially liberal.

Further complicating the situation is political lightning rod Sarah Palin, who is as detested by progressive voters as she is beloved by conservative voters. Palin anointed Carly Fiorina as her choice for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination with a seemingly coveted endorsement posted on her official Sarah Palin Facebook page. This could ironically result in Fiorina being rejected by California's more moderate, environmentally conscious, pro-choice voters, who are not overly fond of aerial wolf hunters who support celibacy-only sex education and can't remember what newspapers or magazines they read.

As if oblivious to this conservative slugfest, former U.S. Representative Tom Campbell, the third candidate in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate nomination has deliberately refused to pander to the far right, setting himself up as a moderate Republican and the best candidate to beat the vulnerable left-wing Barbara Boxer in the general election should he defeat Fiorina and DeVore. Both the DeVore and Fiorina campaigns are derogatively calling Campbell "Boxer Lite" and dubbing him a RINO (Republican in Name Only) in an attempt to paint Campbell as a watered-down version of the incumbent Democrat senator from California's liberal San Francisco Bay Area.

Ironically, the fierce battle between Boxer and DeVore could hand the primary nomination to Tom Campbell, a political moderate who likely has the best chance of beating the more politically extreme Boxer in a state that likes its politicians cooked "medium."

While the more conservative Chuck DeVore had originally hoped that Campbell and Fiorina would slug it out for the moderate Republican vote-leaving him as the only conservative Republican in the race-Fiorina's decision to zig right in the primaries, including her prized endorsement by Sarah Palin (which could come back to haunt her in the general election) was an unexpected jab that sent the Southern California state lawmaker to the ropes.

Not surprisingly, political pundits are having a field day with this exciting contest. Larry Sabato, a political analyst from the University of Virginia, sees California as one of the few places that favor moderate Republicans over more conservative Republicans in a general election, as evidence by Arnold Schwarzenegger's victories in the last two California gubernatorial races.

"Even many of the conservative Republicans in California have come to terms with reality, and the reality is that if they nominate a very conservative Republican, their chances of winning are nil in a general election," Sabato said in a Sacramento Bee article. He warned California Republicans that if they nominate a senate candidate who is too far right, "you can just go ahead and put a check mark next to Barbara Boxer, no matter what her current ratings in the polls are."

Even if she wins the Republican primary, Carly Fiorina may regret the day she sought Sarah Palin's conservative "Good Housekeeping" seal of approval, a recommendation that many voters will view as akin to being endorsed by Mad magazine. Fiorina may wish she had stuck to her earlier appraisal of the Alaska governor as someone who could not even run a major corporation, an accusation Fiorina hurled toward then Alaska Gov. Palin when she ran for vice president in 2008 with presidential candidate John McCain.

Sources:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/06/2730728/in-californias-us-senate-race.html
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/capitolalertlatest/2010/05/sarah-palin-end.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/16/fiorina-palin-couldnt-do_n_126827.html
http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin