Carly Fiorina actively explores 2016 presidential run but faces GOP critics
By Philip Rucker and Matea Gold
On a Republican presidential debate stage expected to be filled with more than a dozen current and former politicians, Carly Fiorina envisions herself standing out — as the only woman and the only CEO.
Sensing an opportunity in a crowded field that lacks a front-runner, the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive is actively exploring a 2016 presidential run. Fiorina has been talking privately with potential donors, recruiting campaign staffers, courting grass-roots activists in early caucus and primary states and planning trips to Iowa and New Hampshire starting next week.
Fiorina, whose rise from secretary to Silicon Valley corporate chief during the dot-com boom brought her national attention, has refashioned herself as a hard-charging partisan hoping to strike a sharp contrast with the sea of suited men seeking the GOP nomination.
But Fiorina, 60, has considerable challenges, chiefly that she has sought but never held public office. Lingering disarray from her last campaign could also haunt her next one, undercutting her image as an effective manager. Fiorina still owes nearly $500,000 to consultants and staffers from her failed 2010 Senate bid in California — debts that have left some former associates bitter.
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But allies defended Fiorina’s credentials, saying she would make a strong contender.
“She’s very articulate, she’s very thoughtful and has a very positive message,” said David Carney, who has been a top strategist for past GOP presidential candidates and whose wife worked with Fiorina this year in New Hampshire. “She’s got just as much of a record of accomplishment and a story and ideas as anybody else who’s running.”
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In June, Fiorina started the Unlocking Potential PAC with a mission of galvanizing female voters and beefing up the GOP’s ground game. The super PAC made modest investments in four Senate races while funding Fiorina’s travel to presidential battlegrounds such as Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire. “She left people wanting more,” said Angie Hughes, the group’s Iowa director. “We did a lot of things that would be helpful to anyone wanting to run for president.”
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Asked this month on NBC’s “Meet the Press” about her 2016 plans, Fiorina said: “When people keep asking you over and over again, you have to pause and reflect. So I’ll pause and reflect at the right time.”
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Helping Fiorina chart her political future are consultants Frank Sadler, who once worked for Koch Industries, and Stephen DeMaura, a strategist who heads Americans for Job Security, a pro-business advocacy group in Virginia.
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Fiorina’s new Unlocking Potential PAC has raised $1.7 million in less than five months, mostly from a small number of wealthy donors who wrote five- and six-figure checks.
The super PAC spent less than half its funds directly on campaign activity, making $512,000 in independent expenditures in Senate races in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina, according to FEC data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation. Its biggest investment was in Iowa, where the group spent a little more than $200,000 on ads, phone calls and staff to boost Republican Joni Ernst.
Meanwhile, the Unlocking Potential PAC spent $333,000 on consulting fees through mid-October, paying a dozen different vendors for fundraising, media, research and political strategy services, according to FEC data analyzed by The Washington Post.
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