GOP still seeks strong candidate to topple Boxer

Every few days, another scorching Barbara Boxer-bashing e-mail pops up on computer screens around the state courtesy of California Republican Party spin doctor Rob Stutzman.

They portray the Democrat as "a lightweight" and "the most liberal member of the Senate."

"Boxer voted against the war (in Iraq)," Stutzman, the state GOP's director of communications, wrote last week. "Clearly, she has a blame-America-first history that would make her easy to paint as someone who sat on the sidelines as to what needs to be done to keep America safe."

So, she's a liberal, squishy-on-defense blame-America-firster. The GOP script for denying Boxer a third term in 2004 practically writes itself.

The three people who were considered most likely to run for the 2004 Republican nomination for the Senate have made other plans.

Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista has turned his attention to the campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis and has announced plans to run for governor if the recall qualifies for the ballot. Bill Simon, the 2002 Republican nominee for governor, is expected to do likewise.

Rep. Doug Ose of Sacramento, considered by many to be the most promising contender, stunned supporters recently by abruptly pulling the plug, saying running for the Senate while serving in the House was denying him time with his family.

In addition, former Gov. Pete Wilson has been encouraged to run, but has not shown much interest.

To many Republicans, the shrinking pool of Senate candidates is symptomatic of the party's deteriorating position in increasingly Democratic California.

"You have the nation's largest state. You have a vulnerable incumbent and Republicans need to put out a want ad to find a candidate," said Bill Whalen, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute and a former Wilson speechwriter.

"What this may end up being is a positive thing because the usual suspects of Republican candidates – the typical white male candidates, gray men in gray suits – are not running," said one Republican strategist. "It creates an opportunity perhaps for a different kind of Republican candidate or candidates who actually could inject new blood into the party."

The Mexican-born Marin is an intriguing prospect at a time the Republican Party is striving to improve its standing with Latino voters.

However, a campaign for the U.S. Senate would be a considerable leap for someone who's only experience in elective office was serving as mayor of Huntington Park, a city of 61,000 people in Los Angeles County.

While Marin is energetic and charismatic, there are questions about her grounding in the issues that come up in a U.S. Senate campaign and her ability to raise the millions of dollars necessary to be competitive.

At the moment, the Republican Party has one and a half little-known Senate candidates.

A former midlevel Bush administration official, Toni Casey, has announced her candidacy. Casey, a former mayor of Los Altos Hills, was director of intergovernmental affairs in the Small Business Administration.

Rep. George Radanovich of Fresno has been traveling around the state to assess his prospects and is expected to decide by the end of June. The odds of his entering the race are rated at about 50-50.

With Ose's departure from the race, two other Republican Latinos who decided against the race earlier in the year are taking a second look – Assemblyman Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria and Pasadena attorney Gary Mendoza, who ran unsuccessfully for state insurance commissioner last year.

To the Boxer camp, all of this adds up to a contest that many Republican heavy-hitters regard as a loser.

"The Republican candidates with traditional backgrounds – with public sector experience, with the ability to raise money – they're looking at the race and concluding they can't win it," said Boxer campaign adviser Roy Behr.

To neutral political analysts, however, it's not so much a question of whether the California Senate race is winnable for Republicans, but whether it's affordable. Because of California's many expensive television markets, a competitive Senate campaign could cost more than $20 million.

"If you're Republicans, you sit down and look at the landscape and you say, 'With the money we can spend, we can probably fund four races that are today much more competitive for the cost of what we can do in California,' " said Jennifer Duffy, who analyzes U.S. Senate races for the Cook Political Report, a Washington newsletter.

For 12 years, Republicans have maintained that Boxer is well to the left of mainstream Californians, yet she has twice prevailed – in 1992 against television commentator Bruce Herschensohn and in 1998 against then-state Treasurer Matt Fong.

Boxer won those races during two Democratic landslides in California, but with a popular President Bush heading the Republican ticket in 2004, that is not likely to repeat.

Duffy agreed that Boxer would be much higher on the Republican target list were the cost not so prohibitive.

"If money were not a factor, she'd be near the top," Duffy said. "She's had pretty unimpressive showings against pretty unimpressive Republicans."

Boxer made a name for herself in Congress as a fighter against wasteful military spending. That, combined with her vote against going to war in Iraq, adds up to a record on national defense that Republicans say they can turn against her.

"Can you see her on an aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego?" asked the Hoover Institute's Whalen. "That's not her. If it's a sexual harassment charge involving the military, she's there. If it's use of force in the military, no."

Boxer has tried to shield herself from such anticipated attacks by aggressively pushing for homeland security measures in Congress and accusing the Bush administration of not doing enough.

She has promoted legislation to allow pilots of commercial airliners and cargo planes to carry guns. Last month, at a news conference atop the Laurel Travel Center parking structure in San Diego, she promoted her bill to equip passenger planes with anti-missile technology to defend against shoulder-fired missiles.

Pointing at a jet roaring toward Lindbergh Field, she said, "Here comes an airplane. We can see how vulnerable we are right here."

"She's trying to make up for 20 years of voting to undermine the American military and national intelligence agencies by focusing on secondary issues that won't have a real impact on increasing homeland security," said Republican political consultant Kevin Spillane. "She opposed the war in Iraq, so she's trying to cover herself politically by giving guns to cargo plane pilots."

A Field Poll conducted last month indicated Boxer would be beatable should a strong Republican challenge emerge.

Of the California voters surveyed, only 38 percent said they were inclined to vote for Boxer for another term; 43 percent said they were not. But in hypothetical matchups with potential Republican opponents, only Wilson was competitive as the poll showed the former governor in a statistical tie with Boxer.

Whalen and other promoters of a Wilson comeback contend his moderate record on abortion, offshore oil drilling and gun control would pre-empt Boxer attacks on a Republican opponent.

Others say his candidacy would rekindle the illegal immigration war of 1994 when Wilson championed Proposition 187, alienating Latinos from himself and his party.

Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College, said he admires Wilson but said a Wilson candidacy would backfire on Republicans.

"It would make sense to somebody who had fallen into a coma in early 1995 and hasn't followed any political news since then," Pitney said. "Wilson is so radioactive that he would be the greatest tool for Democratic turnout since the Voting Rights Act."

Wilson is retired in Los Angeles and serves on the Bush administration's Defense Policy Board. He was reportedly intrigued by the Field Poll but has taken no steps toward running.

"He's comfortable in his private life and his public life," said former press secretary Sean Walsh.

It shows how desperate we are that that old idiot RINO Wilson is considered the only "viable" candidate against Boxer. I think it's time we ran a woman against Boxer, and that woman is Rosario Marin.

You'll get no argument from me on this one.

Barabra Boxer is a leftwing slug and highly beatable too. The problem is, no one with any serious intentions has stepped forward to do battle against this witch-bitch. Until someone does step up and puts it all on the line, Boxer will continue to win.

It's like the GOP has given up on California. Not a good move!

U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin announced Thursday that she would be stepping down at the end of June to return to California. She made no mention of political plans, but is known to have met with a number of people, including White However, a campaign for the U.S. Senate would be a considerable leap for someone who's only experience in elective office was serving as mayor of Huntington Park, a city of 61,000 people in Los Angeles County.

I always thought the position of TREASURER was a position with high responsibilities.

An executive and a treasurer's position. Budget issues. I can see positive campaign spin on this, and an easy retort to Boxhead's people attacking inexperience.

It's like the GOP has given up on California. Not a good move!

Looks like? They have, and contrare to what this article says, they have discouraged former governor pete wilson from running, on the fear, that it could hurt Bush's chances to apeal and get the hispanic vote, Rosario Marin is the ideal canidate, since Bush could use her, and she could use him, and grab alot of hispanic votes, not just in Cali (which I honestly don't think he'll win), but in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and most importantly of all...Florida and not just for himself, but for other senators and congressmen in there own elections.

I think it's time we ran a woman against Boxer, and that woman is Rosario Marin.

Can't we do better than that? Marin is overenthusiastic about immigration. No thanks. I welcome current Latinos, here legally, and proud to be Americans. But it's time to stop the tide while we absorb the millions who've come here recently. Illegal immigration must stop, and legal immigration should be brought to a trickle. I can't see Marin holding up an America for Americans standard.

Obviously George Bush needs to have even more of his federal agencies announce they will accept Mexican "matricula" cards, so California voters will know he's serious about capitulating to illegal immigration (and that he'll never touch disastrous legal immigration flows). Perhaps a formal surrender ceremony at the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles is in order. Or maybe the Mexicans can sail their largest navy vessel into San Francisco Bay, so Jorge can make another appearance on deck - this time in a top hat and tails.

That's one of the issues I'm concerned about, and we do need to drastically curtail immigration all around. I'm waiting to see what stance she currently takes on the issue (that, and abortion). I look at this race in the perspective that Boxer can't get away with attacking a high-profile Latina the way she got away with attacking two men, and I just don't see who else can do it. Some are mentioning Larry Elder, but his positions on certain issues (pro-drugs, pro-abort) are simply anathema to me. Plus, Elder being a man (regardless of being African-American, since she wasn't scared to attack an Asian Man in Matt Fong), she could simply use the same attacks on him as she did in '92 & '98. Marin also at least has some electoral experience, as Elder does not.

Well, Arnold said after Terminator opens, he'll consider it, I think he'd cream Boxer. Come to think of it anyone beaming Boxer would be entertainment I'd pay to watch.

Well I don't agree with all of Wilson's position but he did champion 187, which was the key legislation needed to save California from itself. Of course the courts tossed it, and the Demmi Gov. that replaced him overruled the will of the voters and refused to appeal to a higher court where it would likely have stood.

Thus, social services in Cali are free for illegals. Thus the invasion continues and the budget is in a $300 million deficit.

California is a liberal state. They are not going to elect Ron Paul Senator.

The Mexican-born Marin is an intriguing prospect at a time the Republican Party is striving to improve its standing with Latino voters.

Be very careful of this babe!

She fits a pattern. First, While she's a fiscal conservative she's a social liberal. Second, she is being offered by Rove/Bush who make no secret of pandering to Latinos as a cornerstone of their political startegy. Third, she apparently entered this country illegally and has lived off the largess of the tax payers for the last 9 years. Sound familiar.

Take a moment to review her posture on illegal immigration. It's all over the public record.

"Well, Arnold said after Terminator opens, he'll consider it, I think he'd cream Boxer."

Unless you mean that in a sexual context, for something Ah-nold, the Sexual Predator, is an expert, Boxer would beat him by 15-20%. We'd rightly deserve to be beat if we put him up.

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