Keep Your Friends Close--But First, Make Sure They're Friends

Just a mere few weeks after California Senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina was widely criticized and mocked from both ends of the political spectrum for her "Demon Sheep" attack on fellow Republican Tom Campbell, she's done it again. This time she dragged new Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown into her campaign, as a "friend." Someone forgot to tell Scott Brown.

Fiorina, a newcomer to California politics, is a Republican primary candidate in a three-person race to unseat Democrat Barbara Boxer in the general election. The race is tight, and as I've reported before, all three Republicans are now within the margin of error for beating Boxer. The other two candidates (Tom Campbell and Chuck DeVore) are to the right of Fiorina, and both have prior political credentials in California. Fiorina has a background as an executive at AT&T, Lucent, and most notably at Hewlett-Packard corporation from which she was forced to resign by the Hewlett-Packard Board of Directors. Her Republican political credentials are very thin, and her most notable entry into politics was her position as top economic adviser to "maverick" Presidential candidate, John McCain. 'Nuff said.

Fiorina's most recent campaign web ad (Demon Sheep Redux?) shows a smiling Scott Brown with the legend "Thank You Massachusetts. Now on to California. Join the Path to Victory." One would be tempted to think that Carly has hooked a big fish to help her with her campaign in California. It would certainly be fair to infer that she at least suggested an endorsement from Brown, a hugely popular candidate who came from an obscure spot in the Massachusetts Senate to become the replacement for Senator-for-Life, Democrat Ted Kennedy. There has been much talk (grossly premature, I might add) of picking Brown as the Republican candidate for President in 2012. Endorsements don't get much better than that.

Fiorina's campaign has said that the ad merely indicates that she wants to duplicate Brown's feat in California. No endorsement implied. Yeah, and if you believe that, I've got this big orange bridge I'll sell you cheap. A spokesman for DeVore said "It's crafted with this wink wink, nudge nudge that's meant to imply something that it doesn't explicitly say. You don't appropriate the symbol of Scott Brown and claim it as your own without validating him as a source." Campbell's media consultant tweeted "I don't know if she's claiming an endorsement but that's up there in the Scott Brown exploitation sweepstakes."

Unlike Fiorina, DeVore's people went directly to Scott Brown's handlers and openly asked for Brown's support. They were not entirely rebuffed, but a Brown staffer replied with "Everybody and their mother is asking for an endorsement and we don't want to get involved in a Republican primary." Clearly, the Brown camp was not rejecting the idea of endorsing the Republican primary winner down the road, but is wisely staying out of the politics of other states during primary season. Campbell, on the other hand, seemed to sense the inappropriateness (and poor timing) of even asking for an endorsement from Brown. Short of opposing a KKK or 9-11 Troofer candidate, it is simply unwise for a Republican from one state to interfere in the internal politics of the primaries of another state. Wise politicians recognize that (although pace DeVore, there's no harm in asking).

Political science professor Larry Gerston summed it up by saying: "It's not unusual for people running for office to make exaggerated claims. As to accuracy, well, accuracy sometimes takes a back seat to emotional appeal in politics." Although I see the professor's point, that's an excuse more than an explanation. Fiorina at best has shown bad judgment, for the second time in a rather limited time-frame. She could at least have run it past Brown's people, and perhaps gotten his approval for a use of his image in a far less-obvious ploy to suggest endorsement. All three candidates are perfectly justified in using the Massachusetts Miracle as a guideline for a Republican victory in Democratic California. But that doesn't mean they should drag Brown into a race that he has not chosen to participate in.

Showing the images of Brown, new Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, new Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia, along with an image of herself would have suggested a "trend." Showing Brown alone followed by the statement "Thank you Massachusetts. Now on to California. Join the Path to Victory," clearly suggests in the strongest way possible that Brown has endorsed Fiorina. Fiorina needs to learn the old adage that just because you can do something, it doesn't necessarily follow that you should. Her twin misjudgments at least indicate that she is too reliant on subordinates. If she can't pick a good ad agency or good public spokespeople, what kind of aides is she going to pick if she actually wins the nomination and defeats Boxer in the general election?