In the first general-election debate in the California U.S. Senate campaign, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer came out swinging against the Republican candidate, disgraced HP and political novice CEO Carly Fiorna:

For much of the hourlong debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina’s record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was dismissed in 2005.

Asked if, after her three terms in the Senate, it was time to give someone else a turn, Boxer said voters would decide whether to give her another shot “or elect someone who made her name as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, laying thousands and thousands of workers off, shipping jobs overseas, making no sacrifice while she was doing it and taking $100 million. I don’t think we need those Wall Street values right now.”For much of the hourlong debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina’s record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was dismissed in 2005.

Asked if, after her three terms in the Senate, it was time to give someone else a turn, Boxer said voters would decide whether to give her another shot “or elect someone who made her name as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, laying thousands and thousands of workers off, shipping jobs overseas, making no sacrifice while she was doing it and taking $100 million. I don’t think we need those Wall Street values right now.”

Fiorna, who took a strong position against women’s reproductive rights during the primary campaign, tried to side step a challenge on the issue from Boxer:

One of the sharpest exchanges occurred when the candidates were asked about abortion.

“If my opponent’s views prevailed, women and doctors would be criminals, they would go to jail. Women would die, like they did before Roe v. Wade,” said Boxer, a fierce critic of restrictions on existing abortion rights.

Fiorina reiterated her support for overturning the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, but tried to turn the discussion back to the economy. “The most important issue right now in this election is the creation of jobs,” she said.

All U.S. senators elected in California since at least the 1970s have been pro-choice — including Republicans Pete Wilson and S.I. Haykawa, as well as Democrats Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Alan Cranston and John Tunney. The last California governor who was adamantly against women’s right to choose as policy was Republican Ronald Reagan, who left office in 1975.

There’s more video from the debate at Huffington Post.