What an odd race. Things tightened up in early September, then Boxer bounced out to a six-to-eight point lead, which made this ol’ eeyore’s fragile little heart think she was pulling away. But no: The three polls taken this month have had the race by three or four points, and now suddenly via Reuters we’ve got a virtual dead heat.

If memory serves, Fiorina ended up pulling away in the last few weeks of the GOP primary thanks to a statewide ad bombardment. Boxer’s actually outspent her on TV two-to-one thus far, but I can’t believe that’ll continue when Fiorina’s budget for the race is basically infinite.

Democratic candidates are clinging to narrow leads over their Republican rivals in two key California races with less than three weeks to go until November 2 elections, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Friday.

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer’s lead over Republican Carly Fiorina among likely voters in California is only one point, 46 percent to 45 percent, down from a four-point advantage early this month…

Ipsos pollster Cliff Young said the latest poll, coupled with a similar survey earlier this month, shows the races are showing stability. “California is trending Democratic although the races are close,” he said.

Whitman trails Brown by four in the same poll. The one skeptical caveat here: As with the O’Donnell poll earlier today, the sample in this one is a bit smaller and the margin of error thus greater than those of other recent polls showing Boxer up by three or four points. Fiorina could be benefiting from that.

For your amusement, via Greg Hengler, here’s Boxer chatting about the stimulus with Wolf Blitzer a few days ago and quite clearly having zero idea what she’s talking about. It doesn’t quite reach the level of “who’s on first?”, but that’s only because Blitzer finally takes pity on her and sets her straight. Estimated time before this vid appears in a Fiorina attack ad: Two days.