California voters prefer Boxer, and her hair

Remember how Carly Fiorina was unknowingly captured on camera trashing Barbara Boxer’s hair? Well, call it election-year karma: Now candidates' hairstyles have become fodder for Golden State pollsters — and Fiorina is lagging in the Senate contest.

In its latest survey, out Tuesday, Public Policy Polling asks likely voters which candidate in the race has better hair. Fiorina won’t be happy. Of those polled, 19 percent said they liked Boxer’s hair more, while just 14 percent picked Fiorina. A whopping 67 percent say they are “not sure.” No word on how these tonsorial appraisals break down along party lines, but the good news for Fiorina is there’s a roughly 4 percent margin of error in the poll.

All told, Boxer is still leading Fiorina in the race, 49 percent to 40 percent — a 6-point increase on Boxer’s lead last month. That’s still closer than Democrats would like. And Republicans still see an opening. The Senate GOP campaign committee has reserved nearly $1.8 million in airtime ahead of the fall campaign — the first time Republicans have dedicated real resources to a California race in more than a decade.

What makes the outlay even more noteworthy is that Fiorina is personally wealthy and has pledged to dip further into her own funds for the race. She’s already spent more than $5 million of her own cash, but she’ll probably have to spend much more to make a dent in one of the most expensive statewide contests in the country.