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Boxer Walks a Tightrope

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Times Staff Writer

Democrat Barbara Boxer, one of the most liberal members of the U.S. Senate, is treading a centrist path as the issue of gay marriage roils the race to select a Republican to challenge her in November.

With a procession of gay weddings continuing at San Francisco City Hall -- to the outcries of her GOP opponents -- Boxer said Thursday that she supported the state’s current domestic partnership law, which provides benefits and protections for same-sex couples.

“I have always been very strongly for domestic partnerships,” she said. “I think the California law is a very good, workable law.”

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The matter of gay marriage should best be left to the states, she said in explaining a past vote against a proposal to define marriage, for federal purposes, as a union between a man and a woman.

California voters signaled their opposition to gay marriage with the passage in 2000 of Proposition 22. That measure said the state would recognize marriage only between a man and a woman.

Boxer’s stance may help neutralize opponents’ attacks, but in classic divide-and-conquer fashion, it also disappointed gay activists.

“It’s a classic wedge issue,” said Gary Jacobson, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “It splits the Democrats and pretty much unites the Republicans.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom forced the issue to the political forefront by ordering city officials to wed gay and lesbian couples despite state rules against it.

Geoffrey Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, said California law failed to provide the same rights to domestic partners that spouses receive. He said the group hoped Boxer would reconsider her position.

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Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), rushed to Boxer’s defense, however, saying there was no reason that Boxer’s position should “cause her harm” among her supporters in the gay and lesbian community.

“She is a champion of civil rights,” said Leno, who recently introduced legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. “Her record is impeccable.”

Jacobson, the political scientist, also suggested that Boxer could count on support from the gay community.

“By not championing gay marriage, she might make some of the gay community unhappy, but I don’t think they’d prefer any of her prospective opponents,” he said.

Boxer’s middle-of-the-road position is not likely to quiet her GOP opponents, however. Two of them, former Secretary of State Bill Jones and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, spent the week clamoring for Boxer to state her position on the matter.

A recent Jones newsletter focusing on the events in San Francisco said the city is “the philosophical home of Sen. Barbara Boxer.” It also described her as a “lifelong champion of the San Francisco elite who are now openly violating California law” and noted that she had voted against “the 1996 federal Protection of Marriage Act.”

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Boxer found unanimity with her fellow Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, who is not up for reelection this year, released a statement Thursday saying that she believed the question of marriage should be left to the state.

“In California’s case, four years ago the people of California voted on Proposition 22 and by an overwhelming majority passed a law which defines marriage as between a man and a woman,” Feinstein said. “If the mayor believes that law is unconstitutional, the place to go is the court.”

It is unclear how much weight voters might give gay marriage in relation to the economy, national defense and other issues at the forefront of the presidential election.

“A lot hinges on what Bush does with this and how the national presidential campaign develops,” San Francisco State political science professor Richard DeLeon said.

President Bush took issue with same-sex marriage earlier this week, saying he was troubled by both the San Francisco gay weddings and a decision by Massachusetts’ highest court that said same-sex couples had the right to marry. Bush is considering whether to back a constitutional ban on such marriages.

Jacobson said same-sex marriage posed bigger problems for Boxer and other Democrats than for Republicans.

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“The question is whether it matters to people on the fence,” he said. “My thought is, probably not a lot.”

Boxer, a San Francisco Democrat known for her combative style, has guarded her Senate seat in part by making social and environmental concerns her political trademark.

Asked in an interview why voters should send her back to Washington, Boxer ticked off a list that included restoring environmental protections, fighting the outsourcing of jobs and getting a handle on the deficit as key issues among voters. “Elections are about the future,” she said.

Boxer also cited her support for wilderness protection, air marshals aboard commercial flights, and after-school programs for children.

“As voters look at this election, they have to ask themselves the basic question of who’s standing up for them. I think they’re going to say Barbara Boxer is on our side,” she said.

As divisive as the same-sex marriage issue may seem, political analysts contend that voters are unlikely to react to gay marriage the way they did to Gov. Gray Davis’ decision to sign legislation that would have granted driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Opponents used that issue to help recall Davis by tying it to security concerns.

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“I don’t think anybody is worried that a gay married couple is going to fly an airplane into downtown L.A.,” said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan election guide.

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