By Maeve Reston, CNN
Updated 9:13 AM ET, Wed September 30, 2015
Los Angeles (CNN) Carly Fiorina is surprising many Republicans with her meteoric rise to the top tier of the 2016 GOP race. But here in California, her sparkling performances on the campaign trail look more like a case of déjà vu.
Before plummeting to a 10-percentage-point loss during a wave year for Republicans in 2010, the former chief executive mounted a fierce challenge to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer with all of the same assets she is displaying now.
She dazzled voters, particularly women, with her secretary-to-CEO life narrative. She impressed them with her toughness -- from her well-placed jabs at Boxer to her own gutsy story as a breast cancer survivor. She demonstrated a brilliant ability to synthesize complex issues into sound bites, even if critics often took issue with the way she framed the facts.
But the 2010 race offered a window into something else: the ease of constructing a brutal and relentless takedown of the one-time Hewlett-Packard chief executive that could well be repeated in the presidential cycle. The anti-Fiorina playbook in California packed a powerful one-two punch: pairing the stories of dismissed H-P workers with details of her compensation package and luxurious CEO "perks" -- from private jets to yachts -- defining her as the face of corporate greed.
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The attacks were particularly potent, because opponents used Fiorina's own words against her, plucking damaging quotes from the vast trove of video that comprises her business career.
'Very concerned'
"Early on, we were very concerned," said Boxer's lead strategist, Rose Kapolczynski, recalling her alarm when she first experienced Fiorina's powerful appeal to moderate women of all political parties in early focus groups. "Some voters found her so appealing that when we told them about her laying off workers, they didn't believe us. They'd say 'She wouldn't do that.' "
Facing that disbelief in an election climate favoring Republicans, the Boxer team set out on an intensive scrub of Fiorina's business record, sifting through her countless interviews, speeches and public statements.
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