Boxer a Risk-Taker Who Challenges Status Quo

At first glance, Barbara Boxer’s decade-long career in Congress fits the profile of an entrenched liberal Democrat--the kind of politician considered vulnerable in a year when incumbents are sitting targets for an angry electorate.

Boxer was embarrassed by the House bank scandal this year and is rated a prolific legislative spender by a leading taxpayers organization. Her staff payroll is third-highest in the House and her attendance record ranks among the worst in Congress over the past two years since she announced her bid to become a California U.S. senator. And she artfully has used the power of incumbency to promote her campaign.

This is the “Year of the Woman,” though, and Boxer is running a strong campaign as an “outsider” against Republican Bruce Herschensohn. Everywhere she goes, the Marin County Democrat vows to “shake up” a Senate that she says is out of touch.

In fact, a close examination of the Boxer record suggests that the 51-year-old lawmaker stands out in the 435-member House as a feisty combatant who is unafraid to challenge the status quo. She has produced impressive legislative results on some issues and pursued politically risky endeavors, including taking on some of the House’s most influential Democratic leaders.

At the same time, critics say, Boxer is skilled at and preoccupied with generating publicity for herself. They also say she has grown quite comfortable as a member of the congressional club and an enthusiastic participant in the power and perks of office.

“I have raised some eyebrows,” Boxer said in an interview. “I feel I’ve done what I set out to do. I went (to Washington) to make a change. I did some good work. Did I change the world with Bush and Reagan? Of course not. . . . Now I want to continue in the Senate. It could be just a wonderful experience.”

As a legislator, Boxer has energetically pushed a liberal agenda: She has fought for increased AIDS research, federal funding for abortions, extensive bans on offshore oil drilling and animal rights. The book “Voting Green,” a report card on congressional votes, listed Boxer and Sen. Al Gore (D-Tenn.), the Democratic vice presidential candidate, as the leading environmentalists on Capitol Hill. Boxer favors the creation of a national endowment for the homeless and was among the most vocal critics of the Persian Gulf War.

Although Boxer does not quarrel with the “liberal” tag, her positions on issues are not always so easily predictable. She voted for the balanced budget amendment and favors the death penalty in some cases.

A respected almanac of government, Politics in America, described Boxer as “an outspoken activist and shrewd publicity seeker.” It said Boxer “is viewed largely as a crusader who pushes the parameters of liberalism--unyielding in her efforts to cut defense and boost domestic spending, but only modestly successful in bringing her ideas to fruition.”

Her colleagues consider Boxer a persistent advocate for her ideas. While they note that Boxer has not built a coalition of like-minded lawmakers to help advance her agenda, she can usually count on the support of influential Democrats such as Californians Vic Fazio, George Miller and Leon Panetta.

Most members of the California delegation hold Boxer in high regard, said Rep. Robert Matsui (D-Sacramento). “She is not an ideologue as many people think she is. She is not dogmatic. She can be flexible too. I’ve seen her work well with other members,” he said.

Indeed, Boxer occasionally has teamed with conservatives. In 1988, she and Rep. Richard Armey (R-Tex.) co-sponsored a budget committee recommendation to award the Coast Guard $220 million in drug interdiction funds. The next year, Boxer joined with Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) to offer legislation banning payments to surrogate mothers.

“She is a conscientious, serious and ambitious legislator,” said Hyde, a conservative who has tangled with Boxer over the abortion issue. “She has been effective. She’s a liberal’s liberal. There is not much nuance to her. She certainly has the courage of her convictions.”

Yet some of Boxer’s colleagues and congressional staffers speak of her privately in less flattering terms--strident, abrupt, annoying and shrill are among the terms they use.

Such terminology, Boxer said, often is reserved for women legislators. “If a man gets up and says: ‘The spending amounts for military parts is an outrage,’ it’s called leadership.”

Boxer adds that she does not mind such criticism from her colleagues. “That’s the way it goes in this profession. You are never going to be loved by everybody. You can’t be. If you are, you are doing nothing.”

Boxer made her initial splash on Capitol Hill in 1984 when she waged a high-publicity war against the Pentagon by exposing the purchases of $7,622 coffee pots, $780 hammers and other exorbitantly priced items. National publicity followed and for months afterward, Boxer pounced on every opportunity to scorch the Pentagon procurement system--a practice that led some colleagues to suggest she was grandstanding.

The issue was brought to Boxer by Dina Rasor, founder of the Project on Military Procurement, a nonprofit watchdog group that monitored defense spending.

“Barbara might be a little bit more publicity- and camera-oriented than the average congressman, but she is much more unique in following up,” Rasor said. “She is very good at getting legislation through. Barbara can charm the socks off anybody.”

Utilizing her assignment on the Armed Services Committee, Boxer has pushed through Congress 16 pieces of defense legislation ranging from whistle-blower protection to purchasing reforms. One 1984 Boxer bill that placed a Small Business Administration official in every major military procurement center to ensure competitive bidding practices has saved $1.5 billion, according to SBA estimates.

Boxer’s tenacity in getting cost-pricing reforms attached to the 1986 defense bill was recalled by famous whistle-blower A. Ernest Fitzgerald in his book “The Pentagonists.” Fitzgerald wrote of the time a Boxer aide notified him by telephone of a move within Congress to repeal the cost-pricing initiative:

“I could hear Barbara Boxer, a small woman blessed with a powerful voice, in the background. She was denouncing her opponents, swearing to fight them on the floor of the House and suggesting some rude violations of their persons.”

Compared to her high-profile work on Pentagon expenditures, Boxer has been virtually silent about spending habits by members of Congress on their own institution. In 1970, it cost $343 million to run Congress; this year federal lawmakers proposed spending $2.3 billion on themselves.

“That’s why she is inconsistent intellectually,” said state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), who briefly considered running against Boxer in the Senate race. “She was quick to disclose, expose and condemn Defense Department slough, but on the other hand she participates in the congressional slough. That’s part of the Establishment psyche that stamps her as an insider.”

Boxer said she does not consider herself a member of the House Establishment.

“If I was so entrenched, I wouldn’t have risked everything and run for the Senate,” Boxer said. “There wasn’t one politico, one insider, one reporter who ever said I had a shot at it. Insiders wanted me out of this.”

At times, Boxer has displayed a willingness to go against top Democratic leaders in the House.

She joined a small group of prominent Democrats at the start of the 99th Congress in 1985 to challenge the reappointment of Armed Services Committee Chairman Les Aspin (D-Wis.). And, in behind-the-scenes maneuvering, Boxer sought to oust Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) as co-chairwoman of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues. Boxer said she and other women legislators were interested in rotating the position among themselves. But two knowledgeable congressional sources, who asked not to be identified, said Boxer wanted to topple Schroeder so she could move into the visible position.

The attempted political coups against Aspin and Schroeder failed.

Boxer also developed a knack for staking out political territory that most of her fellow lawmakers avoided, said John Callon, a former Boxer aide. He recalled when Boxer went up against Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) on her proposal to force the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency standards.

“Barbara was willing to actually fight with Dingell over it, which of course is incredibly courageous for anyone in the House to want to cross Dingell in the least because he is quite powerful and remembers things,” Callon said.

On other matters, however, Boxer appears very much in step with the incumbent mind-set in Washington that has come under so much scrutiny this year.

Boxer ranked 33rd among current members of Congress with 143 overdrafts in the House bank scandal. She remains among the fewer than 60 members who have not yet received letters of exoneration from a specially appointed federal prosecutor, retired Judge Malcolm Wilkey.

Boxer was rated the No. 1 spender in Congress last spring by the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union Foundation for sponsoring legislation this term that would have cost taxpayers $404 billion. A revised ranking issued last month listed Boxer 17th in the House in overall proposed spending. Boxer has questioned the integrity of the Taxpayer Union ranking, calling it skewed in favor of Republicans over Democrats.

Last year, Boxer spent $559,057 on her staff payroll--third-highest in the House, according to a survey of public records by Roll Call Report Syndicate. Boxer defended her ranking by saying she stays within her budget and believes in paying her loyal staffers well.

Boxer also amassed among the worst attendance records in the House during the current 102nd Congress. She was eighth-worst in the House last year when she participated in 80% of all recorded floor votes. That figure dropped to 61% this year through Sept. 10. By comparison, Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.), who is running for the other California Senate seat against Democrat Dianne Feinstein, has made 90% of this year’s votes.

Saying she regrets “every single vote I’ve missed,” Boxer pointed to her average 90% voting record before she ran for the Senate. Boxer said she continues to have an impact on the House floor by flying back occasionally to make major votes. However, since the August recess, she has cast only two of 28 recorded votes between Sept. 8 and Sept. 23.

On the campaign trail, Boxer repeatedly touts herself as a “fighter” who will bring “some guts and some spine” to the Senate chamber. But occasional waffling on major issues has made some House colleagues wonder.

In early 1989, Boxer stood on the House floor to support a 51% congressional pay raise and admonish legislators who intended to oppose the measure.

“I am going to watch who you are and I am going to tell your constituents if you take that pay raise,” she said. “To talk against the pay raise and then keep it would be hypocritical and unbecoming a member of Congress.”

Boxer then startled her colleagues by voting against the pay raise. She said a provision that allowed members to continue collecting speaking fees--which she did not support--forced her to oppose the bill. Later that year, Boxer voted for a 40% hike in pay, which now stands at $129,500 per member.

And during the House bank scandal, Boxer was adamant that the checking account records of lawmakers were none of the public’s business. In comparing the issue to her position on other privacy matters such as a woman’s right to choose an abortion, Boxer told a Times reporter on the day of the House vote that she would oppose any resolution to disclose the names of all members who wrote overdrafts.

Boxer then voted in favor of releasing the names of every member who issued an overdraft.

Said Boxer: “The public concern changed my mind.”