Fiorina has yet to tap wealth in general election

By KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON

U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina used her personal fortune, corporate experience and outsider status to propel herself to the Republican Party's nomination in California.

So far in a young general election, she is holding onto her wallet.

Fiorina lent her campaign $5.5 million before the June 8 primary, but has contributed nothing from her own bank account since and risks losing momentum that has turned the race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer into a toss-up.

The other wealthy candidate running for statewide office, former eBay Inc. chief executive Meg Whitman, has taken a different tack. The billionaire wrote her campaign a $20 million check after the primary, adding to the $71 million she already had poured in.

With Fiorina already trailing far behind Boxer in fundraising, any reluctance on her part to self-fund in the general election raises questions about whether she can compete financially.

Federal campaign finance reports released in mid-July showed Boxer with $11.3 million in the bank, compared to Fiorina's $953,000. Boxer's campaign expects to spend $30 million or more on her re-election campaign.

So far, the former Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive has declined to say whether she will put any more of her own money behind her campaign.

"I haven't talked to Carly about any type of additional investment in the campaign, and my hope is that we'll be able to fund this through a very aggressive fundraising program," said Fiorina's campaign manager, Marty Wilson.

Fiorina routinely sidesteps questions about how much of her own wealth she is willing to put into the race.

"I don't have millions of dollars to put into the campaign," she said shortly after entering the race last November.

The primary proved that she could spend big when she needed to. The cash infusion from her own account helped her pull past former congressman Tom Campbell and win handily in the three-way race.

But in another interview with reporters in late June, Fiorina would not say whether she would pump more money into her general-election campaign, saying, "I'm not prepared to talk about a particular strategy."

Fiorina's reluctance so far to write checks for her general-election campaign might in part be due to the size of her fortune.

She's rich, but is no Whitman.

Fiorina's financial disclosure report filed with the Senate shows that she has assets valued at between $25.6 million and $115.9 million, far less than her fellow Republican, who has said she is willing to spend $150 million on her run for governor.

Of the $5.5 million Fiorina has lent her campaign, she can repay herself up to $250,000 after the election, according to federal campaign laws. So in effect, the vast majority of her loan will end up as a contribution.

Money is the lifeblood of all elections, but that's particularly true in California.

Millions of dollars are required to mail fliers and buy the television and radio ads needed to boost a candidate's name recognition with an ethnically diverse electorate that is spread out in a region long enough to stretch from Maine to North Carolina.

Wilson said he is hopeful Fiorina will be able to draw on donors nationwide who want to see Boxer defeated in her quest for a fourth Senate term.

"Senate campaigns are national races. We have a donor pool that's not limited by geography except that they have to be a citizen of the United States," Wilson said. "So we're raising money in all 50 states."

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said the assistance the White House has been able to provide Boxer through three fundraisers points to an obvious difference in the race so far.

"They clearly are loading up," he said of Democrats. "It's going to be a tough race, but I do believe it's a winnable race."

The committee announced Monday it has reserved $1.75 million worth of television advertising time for the final week of the election in the Los Angeles market, demonstrating that GOP officials in Washington believe that Fiorina can win in November.

The committee can cut a check of up to about $42,000 straight to her campaign and can help cover up to $4.8 million in expenses in coordination with the campaign. It also can spend unlimited amounts on independent expenditures, as long as the spending is not coordinated with Fiorina.

A Field Poll released earlier this month found the candidates in a statistical tie among likely voters, with Boxer supported by 47 percent and Fiorina backed by 44 percent, a gap that was within the poll's margin of error.

Matt Fong, the GOP candidate who ran a competitive race against Boxer in 1998, said Fiorina does not need to catch up to Boxer financially to win the race, but "she certainly has to have enough to get the message out through the next few months."

"Unless she, through this summer, raises a significant amount of money, she'll probably have to write a check," Fong said.

Scott Reed, a longtime Republican strategist in Washington, said the poll numbers in the California Senate race are more important than the financial numbers at this stage. If the poll numbers are close, the money will follow, he said.

"Fiorina is now in a very strong position to raise all the money she's going to need to capitalize on Boxer's unpopularity," he said.