Carly Fiorina joins GOP fundraising effort for 2012

Former U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina was named Tuesday as a leader of the national Republican effort to retake the Senate in 2012.

Fiorina, who lost to incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer by 10 percentage points in November, will serve as a vice chairwoman on the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In that role, she will raise money for GOP candidates nationwide and speak publicly on economic issues. She was chief executive of Hewlett-Packard until she was ousted in 2005.

“All the things that drove me to run for elected office keep me involved,” Fiorina said in an interview. “I believe that job creation is at stake in our country. I believe that we need a different legislative agenda, and the Senate sets the legislative agenda, and this is a way that I can be helpful to restore a Republican majority in the Senate, which I frankly think is vital for economic growth and job creation in this country.”

The move is Fiorina’s first public step since losing her first bid for office. She said she had no regrets about her run, and attributed the loss to the Democratic voter edge in California.

“I’m very proud of our campaign,” Fiorina said. “I’m very proud of the 4.2 million votes we won and all the money we raised. …The fact remains that there are 2.2 million more registered Democrats in California than registered Republicans. It’s a high hurdle. I’m glad we did it, and I’m looking forward to helping other Senate candidates in other states around the country.”

Boxer reacted to the news by pointing to a key piece of baggage that dogged Fiorina during their race: that while head of Hewlett-Packard she outsourced American jobs.

“It’s an extremely risky choice because although Carly Fiorina can raise a lot of money … she represents all the things that people are upset about -- someone who made their money by shipping jobs overseas,” Boxer said in a Capitol hallway after the Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch.

Fundraising is key to the GOP’s chances – the Senate committee has raised less than its Democratic counterpart, and in a presidential election cycle, it faces increased competition for donor dollars.

Fiorina said she was not focusing on individual races, other than to note she would not be involved in any GOP attempt to defeat California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is expected to face a smooth reelection bid next year.

“Let me just say I’m concentrating my efforts on races other than those in California,” she said.

During her Senate run, Fiorina was a charismatic campaigner and a prodigious fundraiser, raising $22 million for her campaign and the NRSC. The committee strongly backed Fiorina’s effort, chipping in nearly $5 million on her behalf, and Fiorina has maintained relations with the committee’s chairman, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), since the election.

But Fiorina’s resume also provided plenty of fodder for opponents. In addition to the outsourcing, she received a payout of tens of millions of dollars when she was ousted from Hewlett-Packard. She regularly failed to vote, and was sidelined as a representative for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid after saying during interviews that neither McCain nor running mate Sarah Palin were qualified to run a major corporation.

California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton chortled when he heard the news of her appointment.

“Maybe she can teach them how to lose elections by spending millions of dollars,” he said. “There’s somebody that outsourced jobs, took the money and ran, and destroyed a company almost. Other than that, I think it says more about the shape of the Republican Party than it does about Ms. Fiorina.”

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Richard Simon in the Washington bureau contributed to this report.