Water fight effects senate race in California

IBD:

Might California's Central Valley, long treated as a environmental-policy dumping ground by Democrats, end up a change agent in election 2010? New polls there show a collapse in Sen. Barbara Boxer's prospects.

The Senate race in California has gotten far tighter in the past month, with the Real Clear Politics poll average showing Boxer, the entrenched incumbent, leading her opponent, Republican Carly Fiorina, by just 1.4 points. The latest Rasmussen poll has Boxer up by 2. A month ago she was up by 5, and a month before that by 7.

Much of the tightening has come in the state's water-deprived Central Valley, which Democrats have turned into an economic and literal wasteland in the name of saving the environment. A month ago, Fiorina was ahead there by 7 points. Today the gap has widened to 21 (56%-35%).

Fiorina "has made more visits to the valley than anyone I can remember," said her friend, Rep. Devin Nunes, a Republican who grew up on a farm in the Central Valley and represents the area in Congress. "It's the economy and the water that matter here."

In a race so close, that spells trouble for Boxer. She has concentrated her big-money TV ads on the cities and suburbs of San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. But now she's acting like she can't afford to give Fiorina all of the valley. Suddenly she's making campaign stops there, a region she has tended to shun in the past.

"You know Sen. Barbara Boxer is in political trouble when she's campaigning in Fresno and it's 104 degrees," snickered Jim Boren of the Fresno Bee last month.

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Farms in the region supply one-quarter of America's vegetables and fruit, or at least they did before Democrats and environmental wackos started diverting the water to help some worthless little fish. I would like to run against Democrats on that policy in the area. I don't think Boxer can convince them the fish is more important than their business.