A Sneak Peek at California's GOP Senate Debate

During Thursday's taped, but still unaired California GOP Senate race debate, Chuck Devore took aim at Carly Fiorina's conservative credentials and accused her of ignoring sanctions against Iran when Hewlett-Packard CEO.

Sneak-Peak at California’s GOP Senate Debate

Thursday night, the three candidates for the GOP’s senatorial nomination in California met for their final debate. Although it was taped for later broadcast, FrumForum can provide a sneak-peak of the debate, which will be aired on Sunday.

Positions Taken During the Debate

Based off of Twitter updates from journalists and political staffers, FrumForum pieced together this table of the candidates’ positions during the debate. This will be as accurate as the information on Twitter allows:

According to individuals on site, the first question of the evening is directed to Tom Campbell. The moderator, Mark Brown, asks him: ‘What are your conservative credentials’?

Tom Campbell replied that he served in the Reagan administration, has an PhD in economics, and has a conservative record as a congressman. In response, Chuck Devore retorted that he doesn’t believe there is a tax increase in history that Campbell hasn’t supported. Fiorina, on the other hand, pointed out her Palin endorsement, and called herself an outsider. Her campaign tweeted that Devore voted for the 2005 and 2008 California state budgets, which raised taxes.

Apparently, Devore went after Carly Fiorina pretty hard (as we predicted in our pre-debate analysis), accusing her and Hewlett-Packard of circumventing sanctions on Iran. Fiorina’s campaign reacted immediately, releasing a statement on the issue right after the debate. The statement read, in part:

Carly is a strong supporter of implementing tough, crippling sanctions on Iran to compel it to roll back its dangerous nuclear weapons development plan, which currently poses the most serious threat to Israel and to the stability of the Middle East region.

Furthermore, accusations about the legality of HP’s printer sales have never been supported by any federal investigation or report. In fact, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquired about the matter, but the company has never been found in violation of U.S. trade embargoes.

Another development during the debate: both Josh Trevino, a spokesperson for Chuck Devore, and Jack Chang, a political writer for the Sacramento Bee, noted that Tom Campbell’s voice wavered at points during the debate.

Campbell spokesman James Fisfis told FrumForum that he wasn’t sure why or even if Campbell’s voice wavered, but that Campbell was “definitely in command” and that it was a “big win” for the campaign. Fisfis argued that Campbell got both candidates to agree that the economy was the top issue, which is his strength.

Fisfis also went after Fiorina’s conservative credentials, saying that “Carly can’t be the conservative in this race because she can’t escape [Chuck] Devore’s constant lances” and that she “ended up to Tom [Campbell]’s left on national security” because Fiorina argued that the U.S. was right to mirandize the Time Square bomber, a position that Campbell opposes.

Campbell’s campaign also released a statement before the event tonight saying that the debate was being taped, not live, at the Fiorina campaign’s request. If that’s true, we have them to thank for not being able to watch what sounds like a fantastic debate until Sunday.