Democratic Boxer wins fight for Senate seat
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California's Barbara Boxer is victorious in her re-election bid
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(AllPolitics, November 3) -- Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer defended her seat Tuesday against California State Treasurer Matt Fong, in what she called the "race of her life."
The expensive and hotly contested race came down to the wire. With a week to go before Tuesday's face-off, polls gave Boxer a statistically insignificant five-point lead.
Both sides poured money into the Senate race, because Boxer was considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic lawmakers.
President Bill Clinton, who has family ties to Boxer, traveled to California less than two weeks before the election to help Boxer raise money. The White House said Clinton helped raise more than $2 million during his four weekend fund-raisers.
Late in the race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee sent the Fong campaign an $800,000 cash infusion. Fong used the money to produce a flurry of 11th-hour TV ads to try to sell voters on the differences between him and Boxer.
Fong portrayed himself as a moderate -- big on military and defense issues but not so big on taxes.
"The IRS code is ten thousand pages; it's way too long, way too complex," Fong said.
GOP strategists had marked Boxer as a prime target in their quest to pick up five Senate seats and achieve a filibuster-proof Republican majority of 60 seats.
But Boxer and the Democratic Party produced ads highly critical of Fong, including one that attacked his position on patient lawsuits against health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Those ads, along with her focus on a core set of issues, seemed to pull her ahead in the polls as election day approached.
"Education, the environment, Social Security, Medicare, a patients' bill of rights, a woman's right to choose," said Boxer, outlining some of the items on her agenda.
Both candidates were courting Asian voters Tuesday.
Support from that sector was considered crucial for the tight race. In his June primary victory over businessman Darrell Issa, Fong won three out of four Asian votes.
But Clinton's problems didn't exactly help Boxer, whose daughter is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton's brother. Boxer was widely criticized for her muted, and, according to some, belated criticism of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.
Boxer, however, said the White House sex scandal was not a priority with her supporters as she moved on to other issues.
Capitalizing on the public anger surrounding the Clarence Thomas U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Boxer was elected to the Senate in 1992, the so-called "year of the woman."
In that race, Boxer outspent her 1992 opponent 3 to 1.
CNN's Anne McDermott and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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