CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : Boxer’s Use of Perks Becomes Foe’s Weapon : Senate race: Herschensohn is using material on the congresswoman’s use of tax-supported fringe benefits as he narrows her lead.

When Rep. Barbara Boxer was running late at the end of a hectic workweek on Capitol Hill and planned an evening flight home to California, she sometimes arranged for rides to the airport in official U.S. government vehicles with flashing red lights at speeds well in excess of the limit.

Such are the perquisites available to a member of Congress. But such fringe benefits have proved troublesome to Californian Boxer in her U.S. Senate race against Republican Bruce Herschensohn, a former television commentator. In recent weeks, Herschensohn has narrowed Boxer’s lead in statewide polls by launching a series of television ads that attack her use of taxpayer-financed benefits.

And there is no letup in sight. Within the last week, the Herschensohn campaign began airing its fifth and sixth TV ads that hit Boxer, a five-term Democrat from Marin County, on the subject.

“Perks will be an issue until election morning in one form or another,” said Ken Khachigian, Herschensohn’s campaign manager.

Congressional privileges of office have existed for years, but in the wake of the House bank scandal they have emerged as potent political issues in House and Senate races across the country this year. They are being portrayed as symbolic of a Congress out of touch with the people it serves.

“Perks are definitely being used across the board,” said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a Washington-based nonpartisan watchdog organization. “My own view is that there was just a large accumulation of official misbehavior over the past three or four years that caused the anger level to rise up. These perks are just sort of the frosting on the cake.”

From the moment they arrive in Washington, members of Congress are entitled to a long list of perquisites. These include their own elevators with operators, unrestricted parking within Washington, free travel aboard military aircraft, free tax preparation services by the Internal Revenue Service, special parking zones at Washington-area airports and heavily discounted prices on everything from banquet food to VIP lodging at national parks.

It is difficult to determine to what extent members use these benefits because few records are available to the public and most lawmakers are reluctant to discuss the subject. Often the best source is the individual officeholder.

For example, House members until recently had access to a hair salon with subsidized prices, but there are no available records on how often they used it. Boxer says she has used it only about once a year during her decade in Congress.

There also are no known records of how often House members used the sergeant at arms for rides to the airport, a service that was discontinued after the bank scandal broke. Earlier this month, Boxer responded in writing that she “does not have a chauffeur” when asked by The Times if she used the House service that shuttles members around Washington. Boxer now acknowledges that she was driven to the airport at high speeds by the sergeant at arms, the same office than ran the House bank.

For other perks, however, records do exist.

As the House bank scandal began to unfold last year, Boxer insisted for months that she had “no problems” with her account. Then, when the list of those who had overdrawn their accounts was made public, it showed she had written 143 overdrawn checks, placing her 33rd among current members of Congress.

Boxer has called Herschensohn “disingenuous” for airing the perks ads, citing his use of taxpayer-financed benefits in the 1970s as a mid-level employee in the Richard M. Nixon Administration.

Herschensohn traveled overseas at taxpayer expense--including a trip to Moscow--as a government employee in the U.S. Information Agency, Boxer said. And he was paid a public salary as a special White House assistant in charge of rallying political support for Nixon during the Watergate crisis.

“Here is a guy who is making me look like some kind of horrible, miserable, grubby, mean-spirited, selfish person,” Boxer said in a telephone interview. “It is a tad hypocritical when Bruce Herschensohn was the biggest Washington insider you could find.”

Although members of both political parties have used the perks and written overdrawn checks, there are more Democrats than Republicans in the House, and the GOP has tried to make the issue emblematic of what it sees as an arrogant Democratic leadership.

“It seems to me she has been part and parcel of the (Democratic) leadership team in the House which has created and taken advantage of these kinds of things,” said Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne).

Herschensohn’s ads have exaggerated some aspects of Boxer’s record on perks, but others--such as the emergency rides to the airport--have not been disclosed before.

The Times learned of the rides from two members of the California congressional delegation--a Democrat and a Republican--who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Boxer acknowledged using the sergeant at arms service, but said she seldom took rides at high speeds with flashing lights.

“The only time I used it was if there was a situation where I had to get to the airport quickly,” Boxer said. Asked specifically how many times she relied on the sergeant at arms for speedy transport to Dulles Airport, Boxer said “occasionally.”

The airport service was used by California members because they often found themselves rushed in the late afternoon to make the last nonstop flights to the West Coast. The service was dropped when Sergeant at Arms Jack Russ quit under pressure last March.

State Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco) said he could not imagine Boxer taking advantage of such a perquisite a decade ago when she was a grass-roots activist on the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

“That is amazing,” said Kopp, who has deep philosophical differences with Boxer and at one time considered running against her for the U.S. Senate. “I think it is a clear sign of her attitude. It distinguishes you from other motorists who are trying to make their flights. It means that you are more important. It’s like going Hollywood. She has gone Washington.”

It is precisely that image that Herschensohn is trying to create in advertisements that depict Boxer as a comfortable member of the congressional club.

Boxer has been scored for having the third-highest office payroll in the House, although she defends it as reflecting the high quality of her staff members. She also notes that she stays within the $660,000 payroll and office budget allocated annually to each House member.

Beyond salaries, Boxer’s office expenses are not substantial. Latest available records for 18 months of the current 102nd Congress show that Boxer spent $313,645 in office expenses, which puts her in the middle of the 45-member California delegation. But this has not stopped the Herschensohn campaign from criticizing Boxer for using her office account over various portions of the past decade to spend $46,818 on car leases, $8,986 on food, $1,497 on photographs of herself, $985 in phone calls from airplanes and considerably smaller amounts on items such as flowers and valet parking tips.

Boxer emphasized that all of her expenses are business-related. In addition, she said she often does not seek reimbursement for expenses such as reading material, long-distance phone calls from her residence and the cost of attending community events.

In another ad, Herschensohn accused Boxer of spending $1,565 on limousine rides to the airport. While it is accurate that Boxer listed “limousine services” on House expense reports between 1983 and 1990, there is no evidence that she actually rode in a limousine to the airport. The services were provided by Louis M. Burgess, a retired telephone service worker who drove a used Cadillac and charged Boxer $50 per trip, roughly the equivalent of cab fare plus tips.

Boxer said Herschensohn is running another misleading ad stating that she voted herself a $1.5-million pension. Boxer claims she would have to live to be 120 years old to collect the full amount. Her actual lifetime pension appears to be worth an estimated $816,000 plus other financial benefits if she reached the age of 85.

Several of the Herschensohn ads focus on Boxer’s role in the House bank controversy.

The Times obtained a letter sent to the congresswoman on Oct. 9, 1991, by then-Sergeant at Arms Russ indicating that she had written overdrafts. Boxer continues to insist that she knew nothing about the overdrafts until she discovered them on March 13, 1992, the day the House voted to disclose the names of everyone who wrote overdrawn checks. Boxer voted for disclosure.

“Every single person in America knows about my checkbook,” Boxer said. “ . . . I goofed, I am terribly embarrassed about it and I never did anything wrong.”