Will Be Agents of Change, Say Feinstein, Boxer

California’s two women candidates for the U.S. Senate kicked off a statewide victory tour Wednesday, relishing their moment in history and pledging to campaign as agents of change.

Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer grinned nonstop as they were paraded past a convoy of reporters and television cameras at Burbank Airport, first stop on the tour. Basking in the glory of the moment under fog-laden skies, they promised to focus on issues during what will probably be a grueling campaign.

But first on their minds and on the minds of Democratic Party operatives and feminist organizations nationwide was the historic opportunity for women their dual primary victories represent.

“Dianne and I on this campaign trail are going to shake up not only the state of California . . . I think it is going to be felt countrywide,” proclaimed Boxer, standing in pumps on a raised platform to keep from being overshadowed by the taller Feinstein.

“It is absolutely clear that if the message is one of change and excitement, and the end of status quo, we have a great opportunity in California to send that message loud and clear,” said the congresswoman from Marin County.

“It is a little awesome,” Feinstein, former mayor of San Francisco, agreed. “I looked over at Barbara, and I had just a feeling in the pit of my stomach. There is something more than just politics happening. There really is. It is a kind of phenomenon.”

Women political candidates are fond of saying that even when they’re insiders, they’re outsiders, and voters seemed to concur in California’s primary Tuesday. In addition to choosing the two women candidates for the U.S. Senate, 18 women were nominated for the House of Representatives, eight for the state Senate and 45 for the Assembly.

It had been more than 30 years since a major party in this state nominated a woman for the Senate, and never in American history have two women been Senate candidates in a state at the same time. (Rarely, in fact, has a state had both Senate seats open simultaneously.)

But in a year when voters are angry, disgusted and frustrated, women candidates--rightly or wrongly--represent a vehicle for reversing the status quo and for shaking up the system, according to political analysts.

“You now have a massive demonstration that this is the year of the outsider, starting with Ross Perot at the top,” said pollster Mervin D. Field. “It’s the year of shaking the political Establishment. And women are in the vanguard of that--at a time when the public is ready to do that.”

The California election returns “confirmed that the political climate has changed permanently to where we see that women are problem-solvers . . . who are needed as part of government,” said Harriett Woods, president of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

But some caution against declaring 1992 the “Year of the Woman.” Women have always done better in primaries than in general elections, and Feinstein and Boxer face difficult challenges in the fall. Although Democratic voters on Tuesday said the perceived need to put more women in the Senate was a major influence in their support of Boxer or Feinstein, such sentiment is noticeably less strong among Republicans, polls show.

Yet with domestic issues of the economy and jobs at the forefront, and the groundswell of public anger strong, many believe the prospects of women making substantial political gains this year are better than ever.

“One election isn’t going to cure (the absence of women in Congress). This election isn’t the golden panacea,” Eric Schockman, associate director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, said of the primary. “But win or lose (in November), these issues aren’t going away.”

Boxer and Feinstein, meanwhile, spent Wednesday hopping between four cities in a blue and white Gulfstream twin-engine 12-seater, a banner on the side proclaiming, “Back on Track With Boxer and Feinstein.”

In San Francisco, the two appeared before a cheering crowd of about 450 women at a luncheon sponsored by California’s most prominent female officeholder, Treasurer Kathleen Brown.

“It’s a great day to be a girl,” Brown said at the previously scheduled fund-raiser, held in the posh Stanford Court Hotel. “At this moment in history, women represent change. . . .”

Both Boxer and Feinstein attempted to broaden their appeal beyond women and Democrats, stressing that they have support of men who believe change is needed and Republicans who favor the right to abortion.

“I think the message of the election of both Barbara and myself is really that the status quo must go,” Feinstein said. “The myth that women can’t play in the big leagues is perhaps pierced once and for all.

“One of the reasons we’re sweeping today is the fact that the so-called women’s agenda has in fact become America’s national agenda. People are looking for leaders.”

Offered Boxer: “We’ll bring life into that United States Senate. And we’ll bring some guts and some spine.”

In several of the appearances, the women pledged to campaign together, a noteworthy vow given their contrasting styles and divergent politics.

“We will have probably different styles at some points because . . . we are different, just as men are different,” Feinstein said. “But I think that we will carry together a message that can be very potent in turning around this nation and opening the process to action.”

Their gender aside, Feinstein and Boxer won in part because they ran effective campaigns that appealed to women voters in a primary where 57% of the voters were women. They were able to capitalize on outrage among some women and men over the treatment of Anita Hill at the Clarence Thomas hearings. They also stressed current threats to a woman’s right to have an abortion as a crucial issue.

The messages clearly resonated. In one public appearance after another, Boxer, especially, used footage of her walk to the steps of the Capitol to demand investigation of Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment.

“The galvanizing factor behind women candidates this year was the (Thomas hearing),” Feinstein said, “largely because for the first time, through the all-male Judiciary Committee, people saw that there were only two women in the United States Senate.

“That was the thing that was mentioned to me most often by people: ‘I didn’t realize there were only two women in the Senate.’ And when they saw the egregious nature of the hearings, the questions that weren’t asked, the support that wasn’t given, the ignoring of certain elements of (Hill’s) presentation, they began to realize how important it was to have more women who would be more sensitive to these issues and handle them in a much more forthright and direct way, rather than try to sweep them under the rug.”

Feinstein’s victory was no surprise to observers. With recent experience in running a tough campaign for governor, she was a clear favorite over her opponent, state Controller Gray Davis.

But Boxer stunned many who followed the race. Overcoming early doubts that she could raise money, then facing the negative fallout from having written 143 overdrawn checks in the House bank scandal, she still managed to amass one of the largest contributor bases in the country.

“This couldn’t be any more exciting,” Phil Angelides, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said of the double-women candidacies. ‘It really is like a dream.”

Angelides said he hopes the national attention given the Boxer and Feinstein victories will translate into dollars for the fall campaign.

At EMILY’s List in Washington, a fund-raising group for Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights, the phones were “constantly ringing” Wednesday, said spokeswoman Deborah D. Hicks.

The group, which helped raise $350,000 for Boxer and Feinstein, was inundated with inquiries from more than 100 members and non-members asking how they could help in November. It was the busiest day since the Pennsylvania primary, when Democrat Lynn Yeakel pulled a come-from-behind victory in the race with Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, Hicks said.

“We are just overjoyed,” she said. “People are very enthusiastic and excited.”

At the same time, however, some activists said the dual candidacy may stretch the resources of some womens organizations and individual contributors.

“People will say, ‘Can I give to both?’ ” said veteran political expert Roz Wyman, a member of the National Democratic Committee. “They gotta give to both, that’s the bottom line.”

Wyman worked in the campaign of the last woman who ran for Senate in California: Helen Gahagan Douglas. In 1950.

Times staff writers Richard C. Paddock in San Francisco and John Hurst in Sacramento contributed to this story.