Boxer Warns of Offshore Oil Drilling

Standing on a seaside bluff in Santa Barbara, U.S. Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer issued a warning meant for local ears and for environmental voters throughout California.

“Please wake up,” Boxer told a small gathering that included three television news cameras. “If you sleep through this, you could wake up to increased offshore oil drilling, and more oil spills.”

Just a few weeks ago, Boxer was lavish in praise of President Bill Clinton’s decision to extend the moratorium on new oil drilling leases off the California coast for another 10 years.

But now it appears that the moratorium may not preclude drilling on leases that were issued years ago but never activated. Federal bureaucrats are studying the idea of increased drilling.

“There is trouble on the horizon,” said Boxer, promising to fight until her dying breath to block any drilling by the companies that own those inactive leases off Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo. Her legislative staff is already at the ramparts with a legal analysis and a blocking strategy.

The oil drilling issue is quintessential Boxer strategy for retaining her seat against Republican opponent Matt Fong, whom she will debate Wednesday for the first time. She praises progress made on key issues under the popular, if controversial, Clinton but insists that much more needs to be done--and that electing Fong would be a giant step backward.

“This would be the first time in 30 years this [Senate] seat would be anti-choice, anti-gun control and anti-environment,” Boxer told reporters in Los Angeles before the trip to Santa Barbara. “I think [Fong’s election] would be a real sea change for this state, and people need to know that.”

That, too, is classic Boxer: strong rhetoric that plays to her strength among the environmental movement, the gun control constituency and voters who support abortion rights.

Polls consistently show that the 57-year-old former stockbroker and Marin County congresswoman is unable to break the 50% mark against a Republican opponent. The national Republican Party has made Boxer a top target among Democratic incumbents in 1998 and vowed to spend millions on Fong’s behalf. Boxer considers this a badge of honor.

“Every powerful right-wing group in the country--the NRA, the oil drillers, the anti-choice people--are after me,” Boxer said. “If those folks want me out of the Senate, I must have done something right.”

Wednesday’s debate, organized and broadcast by Los Angeles’ KCAL-TV, Channel 9, will give voters their first side-by-side look at Boxer and Fong. The senator and the state treasurer are also set to debate in mid-October, and the two camps are discussing other dates as well.

The Wednesday match will undoubtedly be spirited.

Republicans have been circulating an 80-page document in a yellow cover, “Rhetoric vs. Reality: Sen. Boxer’s Record,” that portrays Boxer as weak on defense, big on spending and unwilling or unable to help California industries.

Boxer fires back that Fong is a clone of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Last week, Boxer noted that Gingrich was the first national political figure to host a fund-raiser for Fong after his victory over Vista electronics tycoon Darrell Issa in the June primary and that Fong was effusive in praise of the speaker.

“That’s a clue as to who Matt Fong would follow,” Boxer said.

Focus on Ad Campaign

It is an article of faith among Boxer loyalists that her standing in the polls will rise sharply once she begins advertising on television. She opted not to buy television ads in the primary when she did not face a major opponent. Her last TV advertising was during her victorious 1992 race against Republican candidate Bruce Herschensohn.

“Right now people see her as she’s been described by her opponents, as that ‘liberal’ senator from California,” said Boxer supporter Midge Costanza, a former aide to President Jimmy Carter. “But what’s liberal? Barbara’s environmental concerns? Her support of good education for kids? Her fight for the Family Leave Act? The fact she has kept all her campaign promises?”

The Boxer campaign is mum on when the candidate will start advertising on TV--although she already has much more cash than does Fong. And loyalists are upfront about the need to raise still more money to wage the battle in the venue where it counts most.

“To get back on television and develop a commanding lead, she needs our money and our support,” said venture capitalist Don Gervitz, who hosted a Boxer fund-raiser Friday night at his lavish home in the hills above Montecito.

Members of EMILY’s List, a national group dedicated to the election of Democratic women who support abortion rights, have contributed an estimated $500,000 for Boxer. The group plans another appeal to its 45,000 members on Boxer’s behalf in early September.

According to the most recent disclosure forms, Boxer had raised $3.9 million by late June and Fong was several hundred thousand dollars in debt. Fong’s spokesman says the campaign has since retired the debt and is raising money briskly.

The Boxer campaign has moved aggressively to reduce the amount of support Fong can expect from his fellow Asian Americans. Two weeks ago, her campaign announced the formation of Asian Americans for Boxer, whose leaders include Washington Gov. Gary Locke and Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii. (Locke is Chinese American, Inouye is Japanese American.)

“We have to not give up on any group,” Boxer told reporters.

Fund-raising and ethnic politics aside, there is an uncontrollable factor in Boxer’s reelection bid. “The problem for her is the X-factor: Bill Clinton,” said Democratic consultant Bill Carrick, who supports Boxer but is not involved in her campaign.

Conventional wisdom holds that if the report from independent counsel Kenneth Starr is particularly damning for Clinton, Boxer, like other Democrats, could be hurt. She has been an unstinting cheerleader for Clinton, and she is related to him by marriage.

Boxer said that her campaign could be damaged not through guilt by association but rather through a lower than usual turnout among Democrats if Clinton’s problems increase. Never one to hide her light under a bushel basket, Boxer plans to speak out firmly and loudly, particularly on issues she feels she “owns” such as protection of Social Security and, in Northern California, opposition to the proposed Auburn Dam.

“That’s going to get people revved up to go out to vote,” she said.

Need to Repair Image

Political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe said that Boxer--both in Wednesday’s debate and the campaign to follow--has to repair her image from years of being portrayed by opponents as “that wild radical Marin County liberal.”

“She has moderated her views in recent years but neither she nor the media seem to have gotten that message out,” Jeffe said. “She needs in style and substance to seem senatorial, to display gravitas. That can be difficult when you’re short and feisty.”

For the shortness factor, Boxer’s staff has arranged for her to stand on a “Boxer box” so that she is at eye level with Fong. Gravitas is another matter.

“I got elected because I don’t look like every other senator,” Boxer said. “I don’t think people want every senator to be a gray-haired lawyer.”