Boxer and Jones Hold Press Events on Same Corner

In an impromptu match of dueling press conferences, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger Bill Jones took to the same Los Angeles street corner Wednesday to outline competing visions for resolving the nation’s -- and California’s -- energy woes.

Boxer’s appearance was planned. Jones’ appearance was the equivalent of a political drive-by. The former California secretary of state waited out of sight in a Staples parking lot near Bundy Drive and Olympic Boulevard for Boxer’s news conference to end, then emerged to hold his own briefing as Boxer rode away.

Jones spokeswoman Valerie Walston said the candidate was in West Los Angeles raising money.

“We know what she’s said before,” Walston said, adding that the Jones campaign did not anticipate dropping in unannounced at future Boxer events. “Bill wanted to take the opportunity to rebut her remarks.”

Rose Kapolczynski, Boxer’s campaign manager, dismissed the moment as theatrics.

“It’s an amazing coincidence that he just happened to be shopping at Staples at the same time as Barbara Boxer’s press conference,” she said.

Though the candidates didn’t meet, the tag-team appearance was their closest encounter so far in a campaign that has been waged mainly through e-mails, press releases and short speeches in front of sympathetic supporters -- and out-of-sight private fundraisers.

Boxer, who announced her news conference two days earlier, went first, laying out a nine-point plan aimed at cutting prices immediately while addressing longer-term energy issues.

Using as her backdrop a sign hawking regular unleaded at $2.35 a gallon, Boxer called for pressuring OPEC to increase production, backed legislation that would expand federal antitrust laws to include OPEC, urged Shell Oil to keep its Bakersfield refinery open or sell it, and asked President Bush to suspend purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and reverse his decision not to dip into it to help push prices down.

“It is absolutely irresponsible to continue filling the [reserve] at these high prices,” Boxer said. “It is nothing more than a rip-off of the American taxpayers. The idea is you fill it when prices are low. You don’t do this now.”

Citing Bush’s stance that “he won’t play politics” with the reserve, Boxer said that Bush’s father’s administration dipped into the reserve to stabilize prices during the Gulf War in 1991.

Federal law, Boxer said, specifically listed price increases “likely to cause a major adverse impact on the economy” as a reason to use the reserve.

“Anybody who believes that the [reserve] should not be tapped at this time simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” Boxer said. “All you have to do is read the law.”

The reserve, stored in massive underground salt caves near the Gulf of Mexico, was created in the wake of the 1974 oil embargo as a protection against economic problems from a disruption of oil supplies.

As Boxer rode away, Jones, flanked by aides, marched down the sidewalk to stand before a bank of television cameras as workers dismantled Boxer’s speaking stand. Jones said he also was “very concerned about the high price of fuel in California” but said Boxer was focusing on the wrong solutions.

“I’m sure she would be the first to complain if the war in the Mideast expanded and all of a sudden the strategic reserve was needed,” Jones said. “The president has to be cautious about protecting America’s fundamental strategic reserve and not exploiting it just for political purposes.”

Jones agreed with Boxer that the nation needed to invest in alternative energy sources and supported production of hybrid vehicles, but said Boxer had not worked with the Republican majority on passing the Bush administration’s energy bill.

Kapolczynski said Boxer disagreed with elements of the energy bill. Speaking to reporters, Jones presented his own energy plan -- a mix of new refineries and development of alternative fuels, which he said had been an obvious solution for years.

“What we find is the senator pointing out problems but not coming up with solutions,” Jones said.

Jones encountered an awkward moment at the end -- explaining who he was. As most of the reporters drifted away, a television reporter thrust her microphone at him and demanded: “Your whole name and your occupation.” Jones straightened, then smiled.

“William L. Jones, Bill Jones,” he said, “Republican nominee for the United States Senate.”