Barbara Boxer is signing up for another run at the U.S. Senate, but the road to reelection, and what would be Boxer\u2019s fourth term, is far from certain.<\/p>\n
After 18 years in the Senate, her favorable ratings now hover around 50 percent. Boxer (D- Calif.) says she’s ready to get voters back. She adds she knows this will be a tough reelection battle but that it’s a challenge she’s up for.<\/p>\n
“I just have to tell you, I’ve run for office many many times,” says Boxer. “I’ve won ten times in a row, and many of those races, many were very difficult.”<\/p>\n
Three republicans have lined up to take her seat. Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlet Packard, former congressman Tom Campbell, a known expert on the economy, and state assemblyman Chuck Devore — considered the most conservative in the race.<\/p>\n
Polls show Boxer ahead of her opponents, but that lead has narrowed in recent months.
\nAnd political experts say Californians could blame the incumbent for the state’s flagging economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is: What’s going to happen to those conservative democrats who are frankly fed up with deficit spending,” says Matt Klink of Cerrell Associates. “Barbara Boxer is linked inextricably to the Obama agenda.”<\/p>\n
The lynch-pin for this race will likely be pulled during the GOP primary. Republican voters in Calif. tend to lean towards more conservative candidates who lack a broad appeal on social issues like abortion and the environment.<\/p>\n
That could leave moderate Carly Fiorina with the best chance in November. As a former top executive, Fiorina has an open checkbook and can finance her own race if she chooses.<\/p>\n
Boxer has raised more than $7 million and while GOP challengers are edging in, her poll numbers are very close to those from 2003, when she was easily reelected.<\/p>\n
But this year there is the Tea Party movement, which is already helping Chuck Devore raise funds but will likely support any of the three GOP candidates who emerge from the primary.<\/p>\n
And while many might look to what happened in the Mass. Senate race to imagine what could happen in Calif., analysts like Klink point out the difficulty of such a comparison. In Mass. there was an open seat while in Calif., Boxer is a long-time incumbent. Klink warns one should never \u00a0underestimate the power of office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barbara Boxer is signing up for another run at the U.S. Senate, but the road to reelection, and what would be Boxer\u2019s fourth term, is far from certain. After 18 years in the Senate, her favorable ratings now hover around 50 percent. Boxer (D- Calif.) says she’s ready to get voters back. She adds she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5758,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5758"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}