Subject: RE: Coverage of our press call
From: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
To: "Garcia, Walter" <[email-masked]>, "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>, Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:44:18 -0700

Cate, Corrine - could be hook for the 'nightmare' video.

From: Garcia, Walter
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:43 PM
To: Paustenbach, Mark; Comm_D
Subject: RE: Coverage of our press call

Barbara Boxer on Carly Fiorina's re-emergence: 'It's like a bad dream'<http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-trailguide-04272016-sen-boxer-on-former-foe-fiorinas-re-emergence-1461791448-htmlstory.html>
MELANIE MASON<http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-melanie-mason-staff.html>, LOS ANGELES TIMES

At least one Californian isn't too thrilled by Ted Cruz's tapping Carly Fiorina<http://www.latimes.com/la-na-cruz-fiorina-20160427-story.html> to be his vice presidential running mate: Fiorina's former rival, Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Fiorina unsuccessfully challenged Boxer in 2010, and based on the senator's remarks to reporters Wednesday, the rivalry hasn't subsided six years later.

Boxer dubbed a Cruz-Fiorina ticket "mean and meaner."

"He wants to ship immigrants out of America, and she's already shipped jobs out of America," Boxer said. "They're the perfect duo.

"I predict this Fiorina merger will be just as successful as her last one at HP," she added, a jab at the rocky merger with Compaq<http://www.latimes.com/la-na-politics-fiorina-business-20150925-story.html> that Fiorina oversaw as chief of Hewlett-Packard.

Boxer dismissed the idea that Fiorina would boost Cruz's prospects in California.

"The people of California rejected Carly Fiorina in a year that was a very tough year for Democrats," said Boxer, calling Fiorina "a very mean opponent."

"The bottom line is they rejected her," Boxer said. "Now she's coming back again. It's like a bad dream."

But Boxer did see an upside to Fiorina's resurgence in the headlines: "It only keeps reminding people that I beat her by a million votes, and I love that."

From: Paustenbach, Mark
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:42 PM
To: Garcia, Walter; Comm_D
Subject: RE: Coverage of our press call

Mark Paustenbach
National Press Secretary &
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
W: 202.863.8148
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>

From: Garcia, Walter
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:37 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: RE: Coverage of our press call

The Latest: Boxer calls Cruz-Fiorina ticket mean and meaner<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-latest-trump-wont-commit-to-toning-down-his-campaign/2016/04/27/d046d5f6-0c73-11e6-bc53-db634ca94a2a_story.html>
By Associated Press
California Sen. Barbara Boxer says Carly Fiorina is the perfect running mate for Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz - she calls them "mean and meaner."

On a conference call Wednesday she told reporters Cruz wants to ship immigrants out and Fiorina "already shipped jobs out of America."

The California Democrat faced Fiorina in a nasty Senate race in 2010.

She joked that having Fiorina back on the national stage reminds everyone she beat the former Hewlett Packard chief executive by 1 million votes in 2010 "and I love that."

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra says he welcomes the three Republican presidential hopefuls to this weekend's state GOP convention.

He says the won't need ID to enter the state, but they should bring California values of hard word, innovation and diversity.

From: Garcia, Walter
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 5:28 PM
To: Comm_D
Subject: Coverage of our press call

TED CRUZ NAMES CARLY FIORINA AS RUNNING MATE<http://abc7ny.com/politics/ted-cruz-names-carly-fiorina-as-running-mate/1311836/>

By SCOTT BAUER and STEVE PEOPLES

Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz has tapped former technology executive Carly Fiorina to serve as his running mate.

The Texas senator unveiled his pick for vice president Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis, calling her an "extraordinary leader" who has "shattered glass ceilings" in business and politics.

The announcement comes the day after Cruz lost five states to GOP front-runner Donald Trump. The 61-year-old Fiorina previously served as the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, but has never held elected office. She was the only woman in the GOP's crowded presidential field before dropping out of the race earlier in the year.

Cruz says Fiorina excelled in the "hard-scrabble" male-dominated business world.

"Of all the people who didn't make it far in the race, she was one of the best about laying out her plan, talking about who she is and her accomplishments," said Doug De Groote, a fundraiser for Cruz based near Los Angeles.

It was an unusual move for a candidate who is far from becoming his party's presumptive nominee, but Cruz is desperate to generate momentum for his struggling campaign.

Some Cruz allies praised the selection of Fiorina, but privately questioned if it would change the trajectory of the race. Trump has won 77 percent of the delegates he needs to claim the nomination, and a win next week in Indiana will keep him on a firm path to do so.

"Carly has incredible appeal to so many people, especially in California," De Groote said. "She can really help him here."

Her first major foray into politics was in 2010, when she ran for Senate in California and lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points. She has never held elected office.

Trump criticized a Fiorina pick as "ridiculous" and "dumb" even before it was announced.

"First of all, he shouldn't be naming anybody because he doesn't even have a chance," the New York billionaire said in a Wednesday interview on Fox News.

"Naming Carly's dumb, because Carly didn't do well. She had one good debate - not against me by the way, because I had an unblemished record of victories during debates - but she had one victory on the smaller stage and that was it," Trump said.

He added, "She's a nice woman. I think that it's not going to help him at all."

Throughout her presidential bid, Fiorina emphasized her meteoric rise in the business world. A Stanford University graduate, she started her career as a secretary, earned an MBA and worked her way up at AT&T to become a senior executive at the telecom leader.

She was also dogged by questions about her record at Hewlett-Packard, where she was hired as CEO in 1999. She was fired six years later, after leading a major merger with Compaq and laying off 30,000 workers.

Democrats quickly attacked the Cruz-Fiorina alliance.

"The best way to describe that ticket is mean and meaner," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who beat Fiorina for Senate in 2010. "He wants to throw people out of the country and she threw thousands of jobs out of the country. Perfect match."

In an Associated Press-GfK poll conducted in December 2015, Republican voters were more likely to say they had a favorable than an unfavorable view of Fiorina by a 47 percent to 20 percent margin, with 32 percent unable to give a rating.

Among all Americans, 45 percent didn't know enough about Fiorina to rate her, while 22 percent rated her favorably and 32 percent unfavorably.

By contrast, both Cruz and Trump have high negative ratings even within their own party, according to an April AP-GfK poll. Among Republican voters, 52 percent have a favorable and 41 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Cruz, while 53 percent have a favorable and 46 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Trump.

Among all Americans, 59 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Cruz and 69 percent said that of Trump.
--

Walter Garcia
Western Regional Press Secretary
Democratic National Committee (DNC)
Email: [email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
Twitter: @WalterGarcia231<https://twitter.com/WalterGarcia231>
[SigDems]<http://www.democrats.org/>