Carly Fiorina returns to the campaign trail

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina is back on the campaign trail after being hospitalized. In a campaign that has been characterized by sharp rhetoric and a negative tone it puts her opponent, incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, in a tricky position.

Showing no signs of her illness, Fiorina was back on the campaign trail after a two-day absence.

"I feel great; it's great to be back and thank you so much for your prayers and support," Fiorina told a crowd of supporters Thursday.

The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive had been in a Southern California hospital Tuesday through Wednesday after coming down with an unspecified infection related to reconstructive surgery earlier this summer. Doctors gave her antibiotics and kept her overnight for observation.

"It's fairly common, unfortunately, for women who have been through the kind of breast cancer and reconstructive surgery that I went through to sometimes get infections," Fiorina said. "They need to be treated aggressively and this one was and I feel fantastic."

Boxer is locked in a tight race with Fiorina and touted California's green tech future. Clearly, she has no intention of taking off the gloves despite her opponent's hospitalization.

"When she was the head of HP, what did she do? She laid off 30,000 workers," Boxer said.

Boxer says there is no letting up now.

"I'm so happy she's well, we're both well, we're both strong and we're going to focus on these last few days," she said.

While any health problem may lead some voters to question whether a candidate is fit for office, political analyst Tony Quinn does not think it is an issue in this case.

"A woman who's gone through breast cancer and that kind of thing, people say, 'You know, I can understand that,' I think in the long run it actually may have helped her," Quinn said.

Both candidates plan to criss-cross the state in the final days leading up to the election.

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carly fiorina, barbara boxer, 2010 election, 2010 u.s. senate race, politics, nannette miranda

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