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I know everybody is distracted by the Massachusetts Senate race, but Rasmussen has some polling data for the 2010 California Senate race to unseat Barbara Boxer. All three Republicans running for the GOP nomination are within striking distance, if not the margin of error: Election 2010: California Senate

California Senator Barbara Boxer is now the latest Democratic incumbent to find herself in a tightening race for reelection.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely California voters finds Boxer with narrow leads over her three leading Republican challengers, including newcomer Tom Campbell.

Boxer leads former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina by just three points, 46% to 43%. In November, Boxer was also at the 46% level of support but led Fiorina by nine points.

The longtime Democratic senator runs best right now against state Assemblyman Chuck Devore, beating him by six points, 46% to 40%. Two months ago, though, she posted a 10-point lead on DeVore, 49% to 39%.

As for Campbell, the ex-congressman and former state finance director who on Thursday quit the governor’s race to jump into the Senate contest, Boxer leads him by just four points, 46% to 42%.

In all three races, less than five percent (5%) of voters prefer some other candidate and no more than 10% are undecided.

The fact that Boxer’s support is frozen at 46% against all GOP challengers suggest that the race for now is about her rather than those running against her.

Boxer is one of the worst Democrats in the state, and an unpleasant woman to boot. Yet, she has managed to win three (!) state-wide Senate elections, due at least in part to the lackluster quality of her opponents. For some reason, the state GOP has tended to run weak candidates against Boxer and strong ones against Diane Feinstein. It should have been the other way around. Feinstein may be a liberal, but she also has gravitas, and has real leadership qualities. Boxer is almost a caricature of the shrill humorless feminist, willing to turn every conversation into an opportunity to denounce "sexism." Even another Democrat would be preferable to her.

We can't get too far ahead of ourselves, however. Chuck DeVore is the sentimental favorite among conservatives; but he would have the highest mountain to climb, and would be one most easily demagouged by Boxer (that's always her fall back strategy). Carly Fiorina was the wealth, glamor, and - hate to say it - gender to defeat Boxer; but (1) she is a political neophyte (2) she didn't display an excessive amount of genius during her time at Hewlitt-Packard, where she seemed to be very concerned with proving she was a tuff gal, and (3) she's recovering from a recent bout with cancer. Tom Campbell has the "earnest technocrat" act down cold, but would be easily drowned out by the bombastic Boxer. Still, you go to war with the Senate candidates you have...

No matter what the political environment may be for Dems this year, defeating Boxer will be difficult. She is guaranteed positive media coverage from the California MSM. She benefits from the lazy gravitational pull of incumbency. And, God help us, many of her positions on the environment, abortion, taxing "the rich," etc. are in line with the default positions of many Californians. At the very least, we have to hope that voter anger will be sufficient to overcome all of this. Still, as we're seeing from the Brown/Coakley race in MA, the impossible may be eminently doable.