Winsome former HP exec Carly Fiorina did about as well in the Californian election as she did ruling the troublesome board that finally sacked her.

Incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer has defeated former Fiorina in a close race.  The Republicans were hoping to take a high profile Liberal scalp and thought a conservative like Fiorina would do it for them. Boxer, 69, withstood millions of dollars in attack ads, an awful election campaign for Democrats nationally and career-low approval ratings. But while many think that Fiorina waged a spirited and disciplined campaign she was really running in the wrong state.

Fiorina ran as a mainstream Republican in a state that doesn't typically elect them. To make matters worse, she had orthodox conservative positions that no one would have wanted in a such a liberal area. Fiorina's rule as head of HP became a central issue in the campaign as Boxer accused her opponent of outsourcing thousands of jobs as part of HP's merger with Compaq.  After all no one would want to elect the person who thought that getting rid of US tech jobs was a good idea.

Fiorina was also not helped by the fact she was hospitalised in the last week of the campaign with an infection associated with her reconstructive surgery following breast cancer.