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SALT LAKE CITY — Two men holding Carly Fiorina campaign signs and pens failed to get the Republican presidential candidate to stop for an autograph as her black SUV pulled away from a Federal Heights area home Friday.
Chasing the vehicle down the street proved fruitless as well. Maybe next time.
The former Hewlett-Packard CEO swept in and out of Salt Lake City on a quick dash for cash. But her local campaign organizer said Fiorina would be back sometime for a public event.
Salt Lake businesswoman Tricia Schumann hosted a $2,700-per-person roundtable and $1,000-per-plate luncheon for Fiorina attended by about 70 people, including state Sen. Deidre Henderson, R-Spanish Fork.
Fiorina laid out her vision for the country, Henderson said.
"She thinks that the government has gotten too big and too bloated and too corrupt, and she intends to be a change agent and challenge the status quo, which is exactly what needs to happen," she said.
Fiorina, 61, started out as a secretary in small real estate firm and eventually became the first woman to head a Fortune 500 company in HP, according to her website. She has served as a policy adviser for the CIA and the Defense Business Board at the Pentagon.
While Fiorina spent some time among the Republican frontrunners a month ago, the latest national polls show her headed in the wrong direction. The star of the second GOP debate has struggled to capitalize on her performance and has drifted toward the back of the pack.
"Not too long ago she was an asterisk in the polling. She is clearly not an asterisk anymore," said Adrielle Herring, the Fiorina campaign's Utah organizer, adding that polls at this point aren't predictive of who will win the nomination.
Clark Caras, executive director of the Spanish Fork Area Chamber of Commerce, said he was impressed that Fiorina is not afraid to go back to her roots as a secretary.
"It's an interesting dichotomy," he said. "You can actually imagine her as having been someone's secretary but you can see her in the Oval Office. To me, she's the real deal."
Caras said she didn't ask people for their vote but asked to let them earn her vote.
Former GOP state lawmaker Holly Richardson said Fiorina talked about her plan to reduce the 73,000-page federal tax code to three pages, something she said the candidated believes could be done if there's the will to do it.
Fiorina stands out among the crowded GOP field because she's not a lifetime politico, she said.
People like to trash her experience at HP, but she was willing to make the cuts — cuts that need be made in Washington as well — that helped the company survive and thrive, Richardson said.
Fiorina was also in Utah in June as the keynote at the Salt Lake County Republican Party's annual summer fundraiser.
Contributing: Sam Penrod
