The 2010 United States Senate election in California took place on November 2, 2010. The election was held alongside 33 other United States Senate elections in addition to congressional, state, and various local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer won re-election to a fourth term.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Controversies

Boxer

In 2009, Boxer was criticized for correcting a general who called her "ma'am". Brigadier General Michael Walsh was testifying on the Louisiana coastal restoration process in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and answered Boxer's query with "ma'am" when Boxer interrupted him. "Do me a favor," Boxer said. "can you say 'senator' instead of 'ma'am?'" "Yes, ma'am," Walsh interjected. "It's just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it. Thank you," she said. The Army's guide to protocol instructs service members to call members of the U.S. Senate "sir", "ma'am" or "senator". Fiorina used this incident prominently in campaign ads, as did David Zucker, who directed a humorous commercial for RightChange.com titled 'Call Me Senator'.

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Controversies

Fiorina

In February 2010, Carly Fiorina put out a campaign ad attacking Republican rival Tom Campbell featuring a "demon sheep", creating international, mostly negative, publicity. The Los Angeles Times research of public records indicated Fiorina had failed to vote in most elections. Fiorina responded by saying, "I'm a lifelong registered Republican but I haven't always voted, and I will provide no excuse for it. You know, people die for the right to vote. And there are many, many Californians and Americans who exercise that civic duty on a regular basis. I didn't. Shame on me."

Campbell

Former State Senator and California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson alleged that during a telephone call with Carly Fiorina's campaign manager Marty Wilson, a longtime Sacramento political operative, Wilson expressed surprise that McPherson was endorsing Tom Campbell's candidacy, and called Campbell an anti-Semite. Subsequently, Wilson strongly denied having made that charge against Campbell, thus leading to a controversy for the Fiorina campaign, where the credibility of Wilson was called into comparison with that of McPherson. On March 5, the three principal Republican primary candidates, Campbell, DeVore, and Fiorina participated in a live, on-air debate, which was broadcast on KTKZ in Sacramento. The debate was called by Campbell, in order to respond to accusations of anti-Semitism and otherwise being unfriendly to the interests of Israel. Campbell had also been criticized for accepting campaign contributions (during his 2000 Senate race), from then-University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian. On March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, a "specially designated terrorist" organization; he was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered deported following his prison term. The usually subdued Campbell responded very strongly to the accusations from the Fiorina campaign, saying, "I called for this debate today so that both of my opponents can bring up absolutely any charge they want. Air it, and let me respond to it. But there’s no place for calling me anti-Semitic, then denying it. That whispering campaign, that 'silent slander,' stops today." A dispute had been triggered as well by Campbell's 2002 letter in defense of Al-Arian. Campbell said he had not been aware of the charges against Al-Arian when he wrote his January 21, 2002, letter to USF's president, asking USF not to discipline Al-Arian. He also said he had not been aware that Al-Arian had said, in a speech discussed in a 2001 television interview with Bill O'Reilly before Campbell wrote his letter: "Jihad is our path. Victory to Islam. Death to Israel." Campbell said: "I did not hear, I did not read, I was not aware of statements Sami Al-Arian had made relative to Israel. And I would not have written the letter had I known about those. ... To say 'Death to Israel' is abhorrent, it's horrible." Campbell said he was sorry he wrote the letter, adding that he did not know about the statements at the time. He said he should have researched that matter more thoroughly, and he would have known. Initially, Campbell had maintained that Al-Arian had never contributed to his 2000 Senate campaign. That turned out to be untrue. Campbell also initially said his letter defending Al-Arian was sent before the O'Reilly broadcast where Al-Arian admitted saying "death to Israel," but that also turned out to be incorrect. Campbell said his misstatements were the result of the events having taken place years prior.

Polling

Results

[[File:2010 United States Senate Republican primary election in California results map by county.svg|thumb|300px|Results by county: {{legend|#E27F7F|Fiorina}} {{legend|#FFB2B2|40–50%}} {{legend|#E27F7F|50–60%}} {{legend|#D75D5D|60–70%}} {{legend|#FF9A50|Campbell}} {{legend|#FFB580|40–50%}} ]]

Third party primaries

Candidates

American Independent Green Libertarian Peace and Freedom

General election

Candidates

The following were certified by the California Secretary of State as candidates in the general election for Senator.

Campaign

Boxer criticized Fiorina's choice "to become a CEO, lay off 30,000 workers, ship jobs overseas [and] have two yachts." A spokesman for Fiorina responded that the Fiorinas were a two-yacht family because they spent time in both California and Washington, D.C. Boxer also claimed that Fiorina "skirted the law" by selling equipment to Iran during her tenure as HP's CEO, also claiming that the equipment may have ended up in the hands of the Iranian military.

Debate

The only debate took place on September 1 at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga. It was sponsored by San Francisco Chronicle, KTVU, and KQED.

Predictions

Polling

Fundraising

Results

Despite the last poll before the election showed Fiorina only trailing by 4 points, on election night Boxer defeated Fiorina by a ten-point margin, and around a one million vote majority. Boxer performed extremely well in Los Angeles County, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Boxer was declared the winner shortly after the polls closed. Fiorina conceded defeat to Boxer at 11:38 P.M.

By county

Results from the Secretary of State of California.