Orange County Brings Out Feistiness in Boxer

Venturing into the heartland of California conservatism, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer on Saturday branded her two GOP rivals as advocates of the “extreme agenda of the far-right that is out of step with mainstream California.”

Boxer, speaking to a convention of Orange County Democrats, said her opponents “criticize the road America is on and the votes I cast to put us on that road. They want to join those in the Senate who opposed every single policy that put our country back on track.”

State Treasurer Matt Fong and electronics manufacturer Darrell Issa, competing for the Republican nomination to oppose Boxer in November, routinely blast her as an ultraliberal from the San Francisco Bay Area with a penchant for high taxes and complex governmental regulation.

Issa’s comments are particularly biting, often portraying Boxer as a leftover radical from the 1960s who dislikes the military but loves big government.

Boxer, seeking her second term, has previously taken an above-the-fray approach to her Republican opponents. But her speech Saturday, which brought a standing ovation, may signal her intent to go on the rhetorical attack.

“They call me every name in the book,” she told the crowd. “It’s going to be a fight, but it’s going to be a fight worth making.”

The conventional wisdom among political insiders has been that Boxer is vulnerable to defeat because she has consistently garnered less than 50% in polls matching her against prospective opponents. But a poll by The Times this month showed Boxer breaking through that magic mark and easily outdistancing Fong or Issa.

Still, Boxer warned the faithful assembled at the West Coast Anaheim hotel not to believe polls done in the spring about an election in November. She predicted that the race will be decided by 2 to 5 percentage points and that Orange County will be decisive.

The goal for a Democratic candidate running statewide is to prevent the Republican from winning by more than 300,000 votes in Orange County, where Republicans hold a 52% to 32% voter registration edge over Democrats. Any margin less than that can be overcome when votes from more Democratic-friendly areas of the state are tallied, Democrats say.

“I know Orange County was the graveyard of the Bush and Dole campaigns,” Boxer said. “I will never forget that--with your help--Orange County denied Bruce Herschensohn the margin he needed here to defeat me in 1992.”

With education a central issue in this election year, Boxer hit at Senate Republicans for defeating President Clinton’s proposals to provide $3 billion to renovate crumbling school buildings. “The Republicans said, ‘No, our kids aren’t that important,’ ” Boxer said.

Midterm elections commonly become referendums on the president in power, and Issa and Fong have taken issue with Clinton’s behavior and policies. While other Democrats may find it expedient to “run away” from their president, Boxer is not among them and is unabashed in her praise of Clinton during stump speeches.

Issa and Fong are betting that, despite the nation’s economic recovery, voters are still unhappy with the federal government and want to see it trimmed. Boxer, in response, is prepared to portray her GOP opponent--whoever it is--as a radical bent on destroying programs involving health, education and other areas that have enjoyed Republican support since the Eisenhower administration.

“My view is that the public has already stated there ought to be national priorities and that national resources ought to be used for these things,” Boxer said during an interview.