The California Republican Senate primary race has been filled with unexpected spectacles – namely, demon sheep and Barbara Boxer blimps. Unfortunately, relatively few have seen the outrageous internet campaign ads issued, and Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, has surged in the polls recently.
Her main opponent, Tom Campbell, who has much experience losing U.S. senate races, has slowed after a strong opening to his campaign. Despite the shifting momentum, the Review urges California voters to place their support behind Campbell, whose rich set of experiences and pragmatic outlook would make him a more effective opponent to incumbent Barbara Boxer and a more effective legislator.
Campbell’s moderate positions on certain social issues make him more palatable to the general California voting base and will allow him to focus on critical issues, such as Washington’s budgetary woes. And Campbell’s background makes him perfectly suited for tackling such issues. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Milton Friedman, became the youngest professor to receive tenure at Stanford Law School, represented Silicon Valley as a Republican in Congress, served as the state’s Finance Director, and most recently was Dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
His lengthy list of experiences and proven track record in Washington makes him uniquely suited for bringing fiscal sanity to our dear capital. As Debra Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle argued, “2010 is the year of the fiscal hawk. Who better to lead the charge than a former congressman who opposed pork spending when pork spending was popular?”