Schwarzenegger’s 2010 Senate chances going up in smoke?
A year ago, polls in California showed a close race if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose to challenge Barbara Boxer for her U.S. Senate seat.
A new Field Poll (PDF file) today, though, shows how much damage has been done to the erstwhile Terminator’s hopes by our state’s ongoing deficit crisis — which Arnold had been dancing around for years, until the current recession caused it to blow up in his face.
Leading 44-43 in an October 2007 snapshot, Schwarzenegger now trails Boxer 54-30 percent in a head-to-head matchup (with 16 percent undecided). Similarly, Boxer wallops ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in a two-way race, 55-25 percent (with 20 percent undecided).
For reasons that are probably not unrelated, neither Fiorina nor Schwarzenegger has strong backing from California Republicans — in a prospective primary contest, Arnold leads 31-24 percent, with 36 percent undecided. (With the governor out of the race, Fiorina’s support only rises to 31 percent, with 50 percent undecided). In CA as in the rest of the country, the GOP is a party out of ideas and overloaded with personalities whose schtick no longer sells.
As a Californian who was sickened by Schwarzenegger’s ability to leverage his movie stardom into the governor’s mansion (the same way a lesser celebrity might trade on their fame to get a reality TV show), I couldn’t be happier.
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)
Tags: 2010 Senate races, Boxer, Schwarzenegger