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Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina in a Toss-Up Race for California Senate

1 year ago
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California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican challenger Carly Fiorina are statistically-tied in the state's Senate race, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 24. The results from its latest survey has prompted Rasmussen to move this race from its "leans Democratic" column to toss-up.

Boxer runs ahead of Fiorina by 44 percent to 43 percent with 5 percent preferring some other candidate and 8 percent undecided. The margin of error is 4 points.

Despite going into this re-election campaign after having held the seat for three terms, Boxer has never led Fiorina by more than 7 points in eight Rasmussen surveys this year and she has never hit the 50 percent level of support that is the comfort zone for incumbents.
Carly Fiorina, Barbara Boxer
Boxer looks somewhat better when "leaners" are counted, (those voters who expressed no initial preference but were pressed further to make a choice). By that measure, Boxer leads 49 percent to 44 percent.

Boxer is seen unfavorably by 52 percent of voters and favorably by 46 percent, with 3 percent not sure. Fiorina is seen favorably by 46 percent and unfavorably by 42 percent, with 11 percent not sure. When it comes to voters with the strongest views, there's good news and bad news for Boxer. Twenty-six percent see her "very" favorably compared to 16 percent for Fiorina, but 37 percent regard her "very" unfavorably compared to 24 percent for Fiorina.

Fiorina is enjoying a higher level of support among fellow Republicans than Boxer is among Democrats -- 89 percent to 77 percent. Boxer leads among unafffiliated voters by 43 percent to 36 percent with the rest undecided or preferring another candidate. Rasmussen does not provide data on how big of a sample it alloted for unaffiliated voters.

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8 Comments

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MAC

boxer will win simply w/the liberal controlled media and the vote COUNTERS. the demo are good at his kind of politics.

August 26 2010 at 12:09 AM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
Ron Todar

As a former Democrat, I am voting for Carly Fiorina. I wrote to Barbara Boxer asking her not to vote for the war in Iraq. I wrote to her on the Health Care Bill, and I wrote to her about the Energy bill. In all three cases she essentially supported the major issues that in the long run will prove to be a disaster for America. As a life-Long Democrat, I am angry and want a change. The Democrats done appear to be smart enough to see what long term damage they are doing. The Republicans are marginally smarter, but have the wrong idea. God help us all.

August 25 2010 at 10:40 PM Report abuse +7 rate up rate down Reply
greatqb44

Looks like Boxer will barely hang on......Carly is running out o time

August 25 2010 at 9:31 PM Report abuse -3 rate up rate down Reply
bpdarling

Fiorina, like other MULTI MILLIONAIRES in varius races across the country, is SELF FUNDING her campaign in an attempt to BUY a Senate Seat. SHe ran HP into the ground before she was forced to resign, so she is not a successful businesswoman, and her anti immigrant stance has already alienated the HEAVILY Latino electorate in California. She has spent TEN OF MILLIONS so far, on smear and attack ads, typical of tea party right wing fringe candidates. Further there are a significantly HIGHER amount of registered Democrats in California, so Fiorina has a HUGE problem with these points. Barbara Boxer has brought HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to our great State and has served California extremely well. She holds key Senate committee leadership roles which benefit California even more. Should Fiorina be successful in her campaign, she would be a 3rd tier junior Senator with ZERO tenure or influence in Washington, which would cost BILLLIONS to the California economy. Carly simply does NOT have the goods that California needs or wants. I predict with high certainty that Senator Boxer will continue her excellent work representing the state of California.

August 25 2010 at 7:06 PM Report abuse -25 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to bpdarling's comment
rlgoff

ha! You think Boxer doesn't have millions??? wake up!

August 25 2010 at 7:23 PM Report abuse +20 rate up rate down Reply
ettu

BP: Would you rather a candidate put THEIR OWN MONEY where their mouth is, or would you rather have a candidate that takes YOUR money to campaign, and then if that candidate is successful, takes YOUR money again, to reimburse their supporters. Your logic, as seems to be the case with many Libs/Progs/Dems, is skewed.

August 25 2010 at 8:21 PM Report abuse +17 rate up rate down Reply
cruisedoc

I'm a registered dem, a 'JFK Democrat', not a left-winger, and I really think it's time for Boxer to go. We need some new blood in DC - and not the tax & spend us into bankrupsy (or leave overwhelming debt to our kids) kind. Fiorina is not without baggage, but she may be the better choice to get us on the right track. I see a whole new generation of republicans coming, and I think they might just have the right formula to get us back to prosperity and fiscal responsibility.

August 25 2010 at 5:13 PM Report abuse +25 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to cruisedoc's comment
Tom

cruisedoc, vote Republican if those are your views then since you seem to forget how well borrow and spend has run the economy into such a hole that your grandkids may be the ones who get us out. We all know how well that worked, don't we?

August 25 2010 at 6:14 PM Report abuse -15 rate up rate down Reply

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