Two former tech executives, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, lost their bids for senator and governor in California on Tuesday, while House veteran Rick Boucher, who pursued many tech-related matters, lost his re-election bid in Virginia.

Former eBay chief Meg Whitman, who left the company in 2007, announced plans to run for the governor seat being vacated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February 2009. Since then, she has spent an estimated $141 million of her own money on the campaign. A recent controversy over her hiring of an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper, however, did not help in the close race between her and Democrat Jerry Brown, who won the seat.

In a statement, Whitman thanked her supporters. "We overcame great obstacles to get this far, and I could not be any prouder of the race we ran," she said. "I gave it my all and so did you. We came up short, but certainly not for lack of hard work, determination and a clear vision for making our state better."

Fiorina, meanwhile, was defeated by incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, who has held her seat for 18 years. Fiorina stepped down as CEO of HP in 2005 after six years, walking away with a severance package worth a reported $21 million. Fiorina has reportedly not officially conceded the race, despite Boxer nabbing 52 percent of the vote to Fiorina's 43 percent, the MercuryNews.com reported.

Among those already in Congress, the loss of Rep. Rich Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, to Republican Morgan Griffith came as a surprise to the tech community. He chaired the House Energy & Commerce subcommittee on communications, technology, and the Internet, and had worked on a number of high-profile tech issues, like online privacy, the DTV transition, and net neutrality.

This was Boucher's fourteenth term in the House. In 1992, he authored the law that allowed the first commercial traffic on the Internet, and in 1996, he started the House Internet Caucus. He was also heavily involved in the 1996 Telecom Act.

In a statement, Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of consumer group Public Knowledge, said "Congress has lost one of its most intelligent and tech-savvy members."

"Rick Boucher has been one of the most moderate and thoughtful voices on communications and intellectual property policy," she said. "It has been a great honor and pleasure working closely with him over these past 9 years, and I hope to have the opportunity to do so again in the future."