You don’t usually see candidates change races only a few months before the primary, but Tom Campbell is doing precisely that, “dropping out of the California governor’s race to run for Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat.”

There are a bunch of folks on the right who admire Campbell, but this move seems a little . . . counterintuitive. If you were losing ground in a governor’s race — attracting 12, 27, 15, 20 percent in polls — how much better will you perform against two candidates who have a big head start? Perhaps Barbara Boxer looks like an easier target on the other side than the essentially primary-less Jerry Brown, but it’s a rough three-way primary with well-funded opponents in either route.

The San Jose Mercury News:

The candidate who stands to gain the most could be [Chuck] DeVore, who becomes the lone red-meat conservative in the Senate race. If he is able to capture 35 to 45 percent of the vote, [Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State University] said, he will come out on top in a three-way race. DeVore and Fiorina have been running neck and neck in the polls.