Ex HP boss Fiorina to run for Senate seat
FORMER Hewlett-Packard chairwoman and chief executive Carly Fiorina said yesterday that she intends to run as a Republican candidate for the California Senate.
The Silicon Valley star will take on Liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer, who now holds the seat. She had set up a campaign account earlier this year, but announced her candidacy in an opinion piece in the Orange County Register yesterday.
She said the main problems she would tackle were “too few jobs for Americans and too much spending in Washington”. She also warned that health care legislation wending its way through Congress worried her.
Fiorina was the driving force behind HP’s controversial acquisition of Compaq Computer, turning the Silicon Valley pioneer into a behemoth with billions in annual revenue in line with that of IBM.
But HP’s poor performance resulted in her sacking in 2005 with a $21m (£12.7bn) severance package. But she rose to national prominence again as a senior adviser to Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain in the 2008 race. As a relative newcomer to politics, she face a battle to get party nominations.