The new ad features four workers who say they were fired from H-P while Fiorina earned millions of dollars in compensation. One former employee says some of the American jobs eliminated were moved to China: "We even had to train our replacements."
"Fiorina never cared about our jobs--not then and not now," one of the workers says in conclusion.
A spokeswoman for Fiorina described the accusations in the ad as "outlandish, hypocritical" and "completely illogical," and questioned whether the workers featured in the ad had traveled overseas to train their replacements. In light of Boxer's criticisms, Fiorina has also suggested that Boxer return contributions from companies that have laid off workers or moved American jobs overseas.
Q: Senator Boxer, you said that if California doesn't take the lead, then China and others will. But doesn't Ms. Fiorina have a point when she says that the global approach would be more effective?
Boxer: Our president has met with China; they've reached some tentative agreements. The fact is, we have to act. California is not a state that sits around and lets anybody else lead. That's why I so strongly oppose Prop 23 [which would block AB 32]. It is shocking to me to see someone try to get to the US Senate from California, who would turn her back on the environment.
Fiorina reiterated her support for overturning the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, but said, "The most important issue right now in this election is the creation of jobs."
Boxer, who also favors the repeal of the strictures against gays and lesbians in the military, said homosexual couples would gain full equality only when same-sex marriage was recognized. "The only way to get the rights that married couples have is to go for marriage equality," she said. "I'm glad to say I believe people are coming around to see it."
Boxer accused Fiorina of opposing every recent job-creation effort in the Senate, including an education bill that provided California with $1.2 billion to save the jobs of 16,500 teachers, and a bill that would increase access to credit and extended tax breaks for small businesses. "Every time you really get past the surface, you see my opponent fighting for billionaires, for millionaires, for companies that shipped jobs overseas," Boxer said.
Fiorina said that the key to economic recovery was less government, taxation and regulation. "To create jobs, we need to make sure in particular our small businesses are freed from strangling regulation and freed from taxation," Fiorina said.
But Fiorina declined to take a position on Proposition 23, the November ballot measure that would suspend California's landmark global warming law until unemployment drops to 5.5% or lower for four consecutive quarters.
Boxer seized on her opponent's reticence, using it as an excuse to return to Fiorina's record at HP: "If you can't take a stand on Prop. 23 I don't know what you will take a stand on," Boxer said. "If we overturn California's clean energy policies that's going to mean that China takes the lead away from us with solar, that Germany takes the lead away from us with wind. I want those jobs created here in America."
Boxer countered that such bans have kept people safe. "To go back to that dangerous yesterday makes no sense," she said. "It has bipartisan support."
The above quotations are from 2010 California Senate Debates.
Click here for other excerpts from 2010 California Senate Debates. Click here for other excerpts by Barbara Boxer. Click here for a profile of Barbara Boxer.
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