GOP Senate contenders boast they're the best to beat Boxer

The three candidates running for the Republican nomination for United States Senate debated Thursday night in Los Angeles. The primary election is less than a month away, and each hopes to face Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer in November. The three agreed on many conservative issues, but also offered some sharply differing views.

With the oil spill off the coast of Louisiana dominating the news, offshore drilling was among the topics that came up during the debate. Former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina said that despite the spill, she supports drilling off the coast of California.

“I believe offshore drilling is absolutely necessary," she said. "We must take advantage of every source of energy in this country.”

Orange County State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore agreed.

“In fact, it was my bill last year that the state senate passed that would have opened up the first new offshore oil lease in, what, 40 years in California.”

Only former California Congressman Tom Campbell said no.

“I’ve always opposed putting new drilling platforms off the coast of California."

USC political scientist on Republican Senate primary debate from 89.3 KPCC on Vimeo.

Campbell distinguished himself from his two opponents on a number of occasions during the one-hour debate at the Museum of Tolerance in West L.A. The moderator asked him about whether people on the federal government’s terrorist No Fly List should be allowed to own a gun.

Campbell chuckled, and said no.

DeVore and Fiorina said they should, and chided Campbell.

“It’s called the Second Amendment, Tom," DeVore said.

“That’s why Tom Campbell has kind of a poor rating from the National Rifle Association," Fiorina chimed in.

Campbell fired back. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Wait 'til you’re off the No Fly List, then exercise your Second Amendment rights.”

Fiorina persisted, saying she knows people who've been on the No Fly List who should not have been.

Surveys of likely Republican voters show Campbell holds a slight lead over Fiorina in the race, and DeVore trails a distant third. But nearly half of GOP voters remain undecided.

DeVore has tried to portray himself as the most conservative candidate.

While all three said they support Arizona’s new law allowing local police to arrest illegal immigrants and oppose amnesty for people in the U.S. without papers, DeVore went one step further and suggested all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants should be deported.

"And they cannot get their citizenship until everyone who’s been waiting patiently and legally overseas has that opportunity to become an American citizen," he said.

The candidates also expressed divergent views about the war in Afghanistan. Campbell said he supported President Obama’s policies.

"The judgment should be made on the advice of the military professionals – General McChrystal in particular. He has given the president advice, and the president appears at least in large part to be following it," Campbell said.

Fiorina said she too supported the Democratic president, but indicated she’d be willing to keep troops in Afghanistan longer.

“I am deeply concerned that he established an arbitrary deadline which we already are seeing as having difficulty," she said.

DeVore, a former lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard, said he opposed the president’s decision to send more troops.

“It’s going to take us a hundred years of blood and treasure to try and build a nation in Afghanistan," DeVore said. "I think what we should do is focus on human intelligence, drone attacks to continue to remorselessly kill the leadership of those who would seek to kill us.”

In comments increasingly heard within conservative circles, DeVore said the United States should focus its economic and military power on an increasingly powerful Asian country.

“We have to prepare for the next enemy. It’s not Afghanistan. It’s the People’s Republic of China," DeVore said.

All three said they supported suspending or eliminating California’s historic greenhouse gas law, AB32, and all three said the historic federal health care law should be overturned.

And each said they were best to face what Republicans see as their best chance to beat incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in an increasingly anti-incumbent year.

“This is the year that we can end her reign," DeVore said. Speaking of himself, he said "this is the year that we can send someone to Washington, D.C. to represent our state that understands the federal government exists to secure our unalienable rights, not try to protect us from our own stupidity and greed.”

DeVore blasted Tom Campbell for refusing to sign a no new taxes pledge, but Campbell said he’s got the credentials to beat Boxer.

“Replace Senator Barbara Boxer, one of the biggest spenders that Congress has ever seen, with the individual who the National Taxpayers Union Foundation rated the single most fiscally responsible member of Congress," Campbell said.

Carly Fiorina said she, as an outsider businesswoman, should don the GOP gloves against the incumbent.

“We’ve had enough of Barbara Boxer," she said. "We’ve had enough of out of control government spending, out of control government taxing, out of control government regulating. We need to take our government back."

Fiorina said, "There is one candidate on this stage who can defeat Barbara Boxer in November – she knows it.”

Boxer’s already spent some of her money launching early attacks against the independently wealthy Fiorina – who won a key endorsement for a Republican Thursday. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she’s backing Fiorina.