COLUMN LEFT : Insider Clout, With Outsider Concerns : Barbara Boxer’s record shows a commitment to the social welfare of ordinary people.

After 12 years of Republican rule, Americans are waking up, rubbing their eyes and realizing that political gridlock, corruption, ecological disaster, urban destitution and family chaos require new political leaders with the compassion to care about ordinary people’s lives, the guts to tell the truth and the conviction to implement tough policies. When faced with undesirable choices, voters stay at home. But in this first post-Cold War national election, enthusiasm for new faces with fresh ideas has propelled virtually unknown candidates--some of whom are women--to upset victories in primaries. Barbara Boxer, a candidate for the Democratic nomination to the Senate seat held by Alan Cranston, may just ride the crest of voter discontent to victory.

Boxer is hardly a new face in politics. As a new member of Congress, she stunned the nation in 1983 with her disclosure that the Air Force spent $7,622 for each coffee pot installed on cargo planes. Now she must persuade voters that the checks she bounced as a representative pale before a solid legislative career that has supported women’s rights, protection of the environment, government support for the family, civil rights and exposure of military waste.

Boxer’s legislative record is her strongest asset. While Republicans hypocritically rattled on about “family values,” Boxer fought hard, sometimes alone, for family leave and child care. She authored bills to keep abortion available to all women, to increase research funds for breast cancer and to counter the gag rule forbidding federally funded clinics from discussing abortion. Last October, Boxer again made national headlines when she and six other congresswomen strode into the Capitol to demand that the Democratic Senate leadership investigate the the sexual harassment allegations of a little-known law professor, Anita Hill.

Boxer’s political vision, however, goes beyond women’s concerns. An ardent environmentalist, she supported an offshore drilling ban, reduced dependence on foreign oil and did much to push the U.S. tuna industry toward “dolphin-safe” practices. When the Civil Rights Act of 1991 came up for a vote, she literally stood at the door at the House, lobbying her colleagues to back the legislation. A stubborn defender of the peace dividend, she introduced initiatives to convert the nation to a peace economy through job retraining for military personnel. In her stump speech, she reminds voters: “One B-1 bomber costs $2 billion. So does full funding of Head Start.”

Boxer is a strong fund-raiser and an effective grass-roots campaigner. At the California Democratic Convention in April, she surprised the press by emerging as the clear favorite for the six-year Senate term. An impassioned speaker whose speeches are infused with common-sense populism and earthy wit, she brought the convention to its feet after she promised to “become Jesse Helms’ worst nightmare.”

Still, she faces a tough race for the Democratic nomination against Rep. Mel Levine of Los Angeles and Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy. Levine has an immense war chest and has adopted the aloof strategy of campaigning principally through television commercials. McCarthy has the advantage of widespread name recognition and as a solid record of supporting a women’s policy agenda, but he suffers from a reputation as a lackluster candidate.

Boxer’s greatest problem is that, as a representative from Northern California, she and her progressive legislative record are relatively unknown in Southern California. Endorsements from the California labor federation and virtually every local and national women’s group may help, but within the next few weeks she must impress the uncommitted.

Fortunately for her, this has been a year of political surprises, with voters lusting to throw out the scoundrels. A Senate with only two women members confirmed Clarence Thomas, burdened our children’s future with the S&L; scandal and ignored George Bush’s secret military buildup of Iraq, which lasted until he decided to wage war to destroy the monster he had created. Voters of both sexes may wonder whether 98 women would have left the same legacy of corruption and cynicism.

Now the question is whether California voters, disillusioned and drained in the wake of the verdict in the Rodney King beating case and the subsequent violence, will take the time to notice a candidate whose legislative record--not mere rhetoric--documents an unwavering commitment to the social welfare of ordinary people. If they do, the state will gain an experienced insider who has the politics and spark of an outsider.