Carly Fiorina’s claim to fame — her five-and-a-half years as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard Co. — could also be her greatest vulnerability in next year’s U.S. Senate race in California.
Hours before Fiorina made her candidacy official on Wednesday, her campaign aides sent reporters an 11-page report touting her record at HP. At the same time, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s team was portraying Fiorina as an insensitive CEO who oversaw the firing of thousands of workers and a then-controversial merger with Compaq Computer Corp.
“California needs a senator who’s going to fight to create jobs, not write off 28,000 workers and ship jobs overseas,” Boxer campaign spokesman Rose Kapolcznyski said.
Boxer is likely to keep up the attack even as Fiorina tries to fend off conservative state lawmaker Chuck DeVore in the Republican primary, where issues such as government spending, abortion and gay marriage will play a greater role. If Fiorina survives to face Boxer in the general election, which side wins the race to define her tenure at HP could well determine her prospects for the campaign.
Fiorina’s time as head of Hewlett-Packard Co. was so unique and tumultuous that at least three books were written on the subject, including her own best-selling memoir.
With that scrutiny transitioning to the campaign trail, Fiorina said she is ready to defend her record.
“Barbara Boxer has been calling me a failed CEO for the entire year,” she said. “It is yet another of her works of fiction, but nevertheless, she conveniently in this charge forgets that I led Hewlett-Packard through the worst technology recession in 25 years and doubled our revenues, improved our profitability, tripled our rate of innovation, quintupled our cash flow, added jobs and created a market leader in the process.”
HP dismissed Fiorina in February 2005, giving her a $21 million severance package. Board members, seeing…