Updated at the bottom.
We all already knew that if Carly Fiorina were to win the Republican nomination to challenge Senator Barbara Boxer next year, that Boxer would use Fiorina’s record as CEO of Hewlett-Packard against us. Many people still curse Fiorina for how she led the firm, and many of those people live in parts of the state we’d like to win in order to win a statewide election.
So it’s not entirely surprising that Chuck DeVore is already attempting to use HP against Fiorina. As the San Jose Mercury-News reports, DeVore alleges that HP began circumventing US export restrictions under Fiorina’s leadership, sending technology to Iran illegally through a third party, the Redington Gulf company.
If it’s true it needs to come out now, during the primary, so that it doesn’t hurt us in the general. If it’s false it needs to be refuted now, during the primary, so that it’s old news in case Boxer and the California Democrats attempt to use it in the general.
Fiorina already has a reputation with fans (yes, fans) of HP. There are people who loved its computers, its printers, its calculators, or it other products. For the people who loved the computers, the Compaq merger had an emotional impact. The people who hate (yes, hate) Fiorina because of her time at HP may be pre-disposed to believe she committed criminal acts at the company, and if she wants to be our nominee, she should clear this up as soon as possible.
Update: I am informed by a DeVore-linked source that Chuck DeVore was not pushing this story to the press, but rather he was asked for a quote to be included in a story that was already being written.