Well, it's kind of simple. DeVore is almost certainly going to lose. And more self-identified Tea Partiers back Fiorina, despite what one might assume from looking at the race. Fiorina's spending-cuts message resonates among these voters.
In the long-term, Palin might just have found a wealthy new friend who will be Senator from California and in a position to endorse her in a presidential primary. But there's no shortage of reasons to think that Palin simply decided to pick the person who best represented the values held by her constituency. And that, according to these folks themselves, is Carly Fiorina.
If you're inclined to see Palin as a genius, either an evil one or a nice one, you'd argue that she's endorsing Fiorina because she wants a combined ticket of moderates (Meg W., Carly F.) to lose the gubernatorial and Senate races, thereby further angering California Republicans, driving them to the right, preventing Mitt Romney from having an endorser (Whitman) as governor, and leaving them hungry for a conservative:Palin. Somehow, this theory also extends to preventing other conservatives from getting endorsements in states like California. This theory has been proposed to me, and I must say, it tangles a few synapses.
I'd prefer the shorter, simpler explanation: Palin wants to a pick a winner, she wants to go where her supporters are, and she might simply just enjoy Fiorina's sparking personality.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/why-palin-endorsed-fiorina/56332/
