Get ready for the national magazine covers and the cable TV pieces about the "new faces" of politics in California: Republican businesswomen from Silicon Valley.
The visuals on Tuesday night’s victories were great for the GOP. The state party with a long history of nominating the most boring white guy available instead made history by nominating Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. Each winner made a point of thanking the other in her victory speech, which will only fuel the media hub-bub about them.
It’s an open question, however, whether, when you scratch the surface, either Whitman or Fiorina represent that much of a departure. They are two more in a long line of candidates whose wealth and prominence gave them a big edge. (Look no further than the governor’s office for an example of a wealthy GOPer).
And neither has offered anything game-changing in policy. Whitman says all the same things that center-right Republican gubernatorial candidates have been saying for years in California: they’re going to get tough on spending, they’re going to hold the line on taxes, they’re going to battle the public employees.
Fiorina espouses the social issues conservativism of any number of failed conservative statewide candidates of the past. It will be interesting to see how quickly Barbara Boxer moves to exploit the multiple openings Fiorina has given her. (Fiorina’s support for letting people on the no-fly list buy guns ought to be very, very high up on the list).
For now, though, both should get a bump in the polls – from the fact that each has now recorded the first election victory of their careers.