Barbara Boxer bounces back

September 24, 2010

Despite low approval ratings from California voters, Sen. Barbara Boxer is back in the lead in her bid for re-election in November. [Chronicle]

According to a new Field Poll released Friday, Boxer now leads GOP challenger Carly Fiorina by 47 to 41 percent.

Boxer’s support has remained the same since the last Field survey on the race in July, while Fiorina’s backing dipped three percentage points. More voters are undecided, the new poll found, increasing to 12 percent from 9 percent two months ago.

Nearly two-thirds of Fiorina’s supporters say their preference is more of a vote against Boxer than a choice for the former HP executive.

“This is all about Boxer,” Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said. He attributed Boxer’s rise in the polls to the fact that “she started campaigning.”

The Fiorina campaign released their latest TV ad this week, a scathing attack on Boxer for insisting that she be called “Senator” during recent Congressional hearings

A spokesperson for the Republican called the footage “the 30 seconds Barbara Boxer doesn’t want you to see.”

In a year when unemployment is above 12% and voters are impatient with the pace of the economic recovery, Fiorina’s strategists believe the moment exemplifies the argument that the Republican candidate has been making on the campaign trail—that after three terms in the Senate, Boxer has lost touch with average Californians.