CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Boxer Joins Fray With New TV Ads

Under heavy attack from the opposition, U.S. Senate candidate Barbara Boxer took to the airwaves Wednesday with new television ads that trumpet her achievements in Congress while attempting to portray her rival, Bruce Herschensohn, as an out-of-touch conservative.

And in California’s other Senate race, Democrat Dianne Feinstein launched her own ad campaign with a commercial that says California has lost 400,000 jobs since her Republican opponent, Sen. John Seymour, was appointed to the post in 1991. It sought to blunt the attack of a jobs and economy ad Seymour began airing Monday.

Boxer, a five-term Democratic congresswoman, started television spots Wednesday night in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento that are intended to expose some of Herschensohn’s more controversial positions.

One 30-second commercial is a series of videotaped clips of Herschensohn, a Republican former television commentator, speaking out against abortion rights and in favor of offshore oil drilling.

“What I want is the repeal of Roe vs. Wade,” Herschensohn says as words on a screen add: “He’s anti-choice.”

Although Herschensohn opposes abortion, he argues that Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave American women the right to choose to end a pregnancy in its first trimester, should be overturned so that states can make their own laws governing abortion.

The ad also attacks Herschensohn for his belief that defense spending should remain at its current level and his willingness to allow offshore oil drilling.

In addition to the ad in which Herschensohn’s positions are attacked, Boxer is airing two 30-second spots that feature her work in Congress. These highlight her efforts to fight oil companies that wanted to drill off the coast of California and to cut defense spending by a Pentagon that purchased $7,000 coffee pots.

Boxer’s delay in unveiling television advertisements--apparently due in part to fund-raising difficulties--allowed Herschensohn to go unchallenged on the airwaves for two weeks.

Although his earliest ads focused on congressional perks but did not mention Boxer, the latest commercial released this week offered a scathing attack on the Marin County politician for everything from bad checks written on the House bank to taxpayer-financed rides to the airport.

Herschensohn’s ad campaign evidently helped to give him a big boost in the polls: Boxer’s lead narrowed to 10 points in a survey of 800 registered voters conducted by Political Media Research for KCAL-TV. The same poll gave Boxer a 14-point edge last month.

Boxer’s aides said they were not surprised by Herschensohn’s gains.

“He has spent about a million dollars on the air, in a vacuum, with no alternatives presented out there,” Boxer campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski said.

Herschensohn, meanwhile, showed no signs of letting up on Boxer. In a fund-raising letter, he called her a “radical left-wing” congresswoman with “little use for religious values or even traditional family values.”

Asked to explain the basis for this assertion, Herschensohn campaign spokesman John Peschong said several of Boxer’s positions showed her weak in religious and family values. Among the positions Peschong cited: her support for federally funded art programs through the National Endowment for the Arts, her support for gay rights and abortion rights, and her opposition to school prayer.

Boxer’s spokeswoman called the characterization outrageous and ridiculous, citing her stable home life and her work “to promote family values,” such as her support for the family leave bill.

Herschensohn and Boxer are competing for the six-year seat being relinquished by Sen. Alan Cranston. In the other race, Seymour is fighting Feinstein to retain the seat he was appointed to by Gov. Pete Wilson. The winner serves the last two years of that term.

Times staff writer Bill Stall contributed to this story.