Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) Elected 1992, 2d term up 2004
Born:	Nov. 11, 1940, Brooklyn, NY
Home:	Greenbrae
Education:	Brooklyn Col., B.A. 1962
Religion:	Jewish
Marital Status:	married (Stewart)
Elected  Office:	Marin Cnty. Bd. of Supervisors, 1976-82; U.S. House of Reps., 1982-92.
Professional Career:	Stockbroker & researcher, 1962-65; Journalist, Pacific Sun, 1972-74; Dist. aide, U.S. Rep. John Burton, 1974-76.
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Barbara Boxer, California's junior senator, was first elected in 1992 and reelected in 1998. She grew up in Brooklyn, where she was a victim of sexual harassment by a college professor and was refused work as a stockbroker; she moved to California in 1965. In Marin County, the ultra-trendy suburbs nestled between Mount Tamalpais and the Bay, north of the Golden Gate Bridge, she worked on civic affairs and political campaigns and ultimately for Democratic Congressman (and now state Senate President pro tem) John Burton. In 1972 she ran for the Marin County Board of Supervisors. She lost, but in 1976, when women candidates were more accepted, she won a seat on the board. Boxer is energetic, usually good-humored, unafraid to challenge authority, voluble in support of her issue positions but not always candid about her goals. When Burton retired unexpectedly in 1982, she ran for the House and was easily elected. She made many splashes in the House, unearthing the Air Force's $7,622 coffee pot in 1984, denouncing the Persian Gulf War with more ardor than anyone, and leading a march of women on the Senate when Anita Hill was testifying against Clarence Thomas. She also compiled the highest-dollar voting record in the House on spending in 1992.

In the 1980s it seemed improbable that anyone as liberal as Boxer could be elected senator from California, which had after all voted Republican for president in all but one election from 1952 to 1988. But in the 1990s Boxer was elected twice, by decisive and rising margins. In 1992 she started off as neither the best-known nor the best-financed candidate, but this turned out to be the year of the woman, in which the enthusiasm of the feminist left produced important victories for Democratic women. Boxer won the June 1992 Democratic primary with 44% of the vote, to 31% for Lieutenant Governor Leo McCarthy, and 22% for Congressman Mel Levine. Her general election opponent was Bruce Herschensohn, a Los Angeles TV and radio commentator, backer of a flat tax and offshore oil drilling and opponent of abortion. Herschensohn had edged Silicon Valley moderate Congressman Tom Campbell 38%-36% in the primary, with the help of then-Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono, who won 17%. The Boxer-Herschensohn race was a battle of opposites, the far left versus the far right of the American electoral spectrum. Boxer was helped by the collapse of the Bush candidacy in California, by hearty support from Feinstein and by the revelation by state Democratic political director Bob Mulholland during the last week of the campaign that Herschensohn attended nude dancer nightclubs.

Boxer's voting record has been strongly liberal, the most liberal in the Senate in 1999, 2000 and second only to Paul Wellstone in 2001 and 2002 in National Journal's ratings. She is perhaps the personification of the feminist left, and is one of the strongest proponents of abortion rights in the Senate; she has vehemently opposed the partial-birth abortion ban. But she was also a staunch defender of Bill Clinton. In 1998, the senator who had marched across the Capitol to protest the cross-examination of Anita Hill, found little to believe in the charges against Clinton until he admitted their truth, and even then limited her condemnation to a perfunctory statement combined with a total commitment to defeat impeachment. And in 1999 the crusader against the Gulf War resolution solidly backed the bombing campaign against Serbia. In September 2001 she supported the use of force in Afghanistan. But in October 2002 she voted against the use of force in Iraq, and in 2003 she told Secretary of State Colin Powell that administration policy toward North Korea was "designed neglect."

Gun control is also one of Boxer's causes. She was one of the first to sponsor a bill to require child-proof safety locks on all handguns, and has come forward with provocative proposals embarrassing gun control opponents, like her amendment to ban sales of guns to people who are intoxicated. She has been a critic of the oil industry. For all her partisanship, on some issues Boxer has worked with Republicans. With Phil Gramm she proposed in March 2001 to exempt Mexico from annual drug certification. In June 2001, when Jesse Helms amended the education bill to bar funds for school districts that exclude the Boy Scouts, she successfully pressed a substitute which requires equal access to all youth groups; this would allow San Francisco and other California districts to keep excluding the Boy Scouts, which ban gays from the organization. In 2002 she and Jon Corzine sponsored a bill to limit to 20% the amount of their employers' stock workers could hold in their 401(k) accounts and to limit to 90 days the time an employee could be required to hold employers' stock. But Banking Chairman Paul Sarbanes did not include this in the corporate accountability bill. She has sponsored a bill to make the Environmental Protection Agency a Cabinet agency; for once she got support from the Bush administration.

Boxer was frustrated when Republicans during the Clinton years held up nominations to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, currently the most liberal in the country. In January 2001 she was the first senator to oppose the nomination for attorney general of her former colleague John Ashcroft. In spring 2001 she opposed the nomination of Orange County Congressman Christopher Cox to the Ninth Circuit; when Dianne Feinstein said she might oppose him too, Cox withdrew. She and Feinstein made it clear that they would stop the appointment of Bush judges in California unless they were consulted.

Boxer has weighed in on all manner of California issues. As California was hit by rolling blackouts of electricity in early 2001, she proposed a windfall profits tax on energy producers and, with Feinstein, sponsored a bill to impose temporary price controls on wholesale electric power suppliers. But she split with Feinstein by backing the two Oregon senators' unsuccessful amendment to the bankruptcy reform bill that would have barred PG&E and Southern California Edison from discharging their debts in bankruptcy; a few weeks later PG&E sought bankruptcy protection. She and Anna Eshoo sponsored similar bills to require FERC to order refunds of up to $9 billion to California consumers. In 2002 she introduced a new California wilderness bill to protect 2.5 million acres; her staffers negotiated limits on use with mountain bikers. She has worked for funding of greater port security.

During her first three years in the Senate Boxer's job ratings were among the Senate's lowest. But California with its large metro areas trended sharply toward the Democrats by 1996, and in early 1997 Boxer's job rating was up to 50%. Prominent Republicans--Congressman Tom Campbell, San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, 1994 Senate nominee Michael Huffington--decided not to run against her. In the all-party primary, state Treasurer Matt Fong edged businessman (and now Congressman) Darrell Issa. On paper Fong was a strong candidate, with an Asian heritage and a moderate record on issues; his mother March Fong Eu, a Democrat, was California's Secretary of State from 1974 to 1994. But Boxer raised $15 million and campaigned long and hard. She launched an ad campaign attacking Fong for his ambiguous stances on issues like abortion. She guarded herself from contact with reporters so she would not have to answer questions about Bill Clinton; the president's brother-in-law Tony Rodham was then married to her daughter Nicole. Fong attacked her for the hypocrisy of her stand on the Clinton scandals. But he spoke hesitantly and unconvincingly in the sound bites that are the staple of California politics and never succeeded in raising much money. For much of September and October he was off the air, while Boxer was pounding the airwaves mercilessly. Boxer won 53%-43%. She won 61%-35% in Coastal California and lost by only 49%-47% in Heartland California. This was a gender gap race, an even 48%-48% among men and 57%-39% for Boxer among women.

In April 2003, Boxer's favorability ratings were just 44%, but the state remains Democratic; she must be considered a favorite for reelection. As Boxer conducted extensive fundraising--in February 2003, she had 70 fundraisers scheduled for the year--several Republicans went around the state testing the waters. The list of those mentioned as possible candidates is long: Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, Congresswoman Mary Bono, Congressmen George Radanovich, Orange County Sheriff Mike Corona, Assemblyman Abel Maldonado, lawyer Gary Mendoza, U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, talk show host Dennis Prager, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, former Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed much more interested in running for governor in 2006. If Republicans can make this a competitive race, they can force Democrats to spend a lot of their scarcer dollars defending California rather than in other states.

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DC Office
112 HSOB 20510, 202-224-3553; Fax: 202-228-4056; Web site: boxer.senate.gov

State Offices
Fresno, 559-497-5109; Los Angeles,213-894-5000; Sacramento,916-448-2787; San Bernardino,909-888-8525; San Diego,619-239-3884; San Francisco,415-403-0100.

Committees

• Commerce, Science & Transportation: Aviation; Communications; Competition, Foreign Commerce & Infrastructure; Surface Transportation & Merchant Marine.
• Environment & Public Works: Superfund & Waste Management (RMM); Transportation & Infrastructure.
• Foreign Relations: International Operations & Terrorism; Near Eastern & South Asian Affairs (RMM); Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affairs.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	90	60	100	94	31	50	14	40	5	0	--
2001	95	--	100	100	--	--	6	42	0	--	0

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	93%	--	0%		95%	--	0%
Social	93%	--	7%		82%	--	0%
Foreign	98%	--	0%		90%	--	8%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Expand Patients' Rights Y 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Permit ANWR Development N 5. Confirm Ashcroft as AG N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. $ for Hate Crime Prosecution Y  8. Overseas Military Abortions Y  9. Bar Coop. with Intl. Court N 10. Trade Promotion Authority N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Homeland Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
1998 general	Barbara Boxer (D)	4,410,056	53%	$13,737,548
	Matt Fong (R)	3,575,078	43%	$10,764,892
	Other	326,771	4%
1998 primary	Barbara Boxer (D)	2,574,264	41%
	Matt Fong (R)	1,292,662	21%
	Darrell Issa (R)	1,142,567	18%
	John M. Brown (R)	489,741	8%
	Frank D. Riggs (R)	295,886	5%
	Other	507,257	8%
1992 general	Barbara Boxer (D)	5,173,443	48%	$10,415,811
	Bruce Herschensohn (R)	4,644,139	43%	$7,649,072
	Other	981,781	9%
Prior winning percentages: 1990 House (68%); 1988 House (73%); 1986 House (74%); 1984 House (68%); 1982 House (52%)