Boxer’s popularity in Silicon Valley is due in part to her role as chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where she has focused on creating clean-energy jobs and reducing carbon emissions. She’s also backed policy for the granting of more H-1B visas, which bring technology engineers to the U.S. from overseas. And in 2004 she opposed rules that forced companies to expense stock options for employees, saying it would eliminate an incentive for attracting top talent.
“Barbara has worked with our industry on critical issues impacting Silicon Valley, including education, promoting innovation, stock options and tax policies,” Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive officer and a founding member of Technology Leaders for Boxer, said in an e-mail.
As for Fiorina
“There’s a lot of animus about her business decisions at HP,” said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento. “It’s mostly the Compaq decision and how she handled it.”
David Siders of the Sacramento Bee reports of the governor:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he is not sure he will endorse either candidate bidding to succeed him. If he does, he said after last week's primary elections, it will not necessarily be Republican Meg Whitman, his party's nominee. Not that she has asked. Or that the governor's endorsement would be helpful, anyway.
