Path to Power
Boxer grew up in New York City.
She won her first election at Brooklyn College – for co-captain of the cheerleading squad. She also got her first taste of community organizing, working with fellow apartment tenants to convince the landlord to upgrade the building’s lobby.
After graduation, Boxer tried to find work as a stock broker but was turned down because of her gender. That defeat left its mark on the senator, who is a staunch women’s rights advocate.
Boxer moved to California with her husband at age 27. There, she campaigned for presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy (D) and formed a neighborhood group to oppose the Vietnam War and a subdivision plan for the wetlands. In 1972, Boxer took a job with a Democratic County supervisor. Four years later, she was elected to the County Board of Supervisors. When an open House seat representing Marin county opened in 1982, Boxer jumped on the chance and was selected by a wide margin.
In the House, Boxer scored support for her pet causes with ferocious rhetoric and clever examples. She once convinced her colleagues to cut wasteful Pentagon spending by displaying a $4,600 toilet seat.
In 1991, Boxer led a group of six women lawmakers up the steps of the Senate to demand public hearings on law professor Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. When a gate-keeper turned her away, she vowed to "open the doors" and announced her Senate candidacy shortly after.
The 1992 Senate race was a nail-biter. Boxer initially held a huge lead over Republican Bruce Herschensohn, a television commentator who opposed abortion and environmental protections and who favored a flat tax. But her advantage faded quickly when Herschensohn attacked her as an insider who had written overdraft checks from the House bank, a scandal she had apologized for the year before.
Boxer fought back, with the help of the feminists and the left. She was also aided by last-minute revelations that Herschensohn had visited strip clubs.
Still, Boxer's prospects remained so uncertain that there were no celebratory balloons hung on election night. She squeaked by with just 48 percent of the vote.
During her first three years in the Senate, her popularity rating was among the Senate’s lowest. But by 1997, it had risen significantly.
In 1998, Boxer faced Republican state Sen. Matt Fong. He attacked her partisanship, a charge echoed by former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.), who said she was the “most partisan Senator I’ve ever known.” Boxer went on offense, attacking Fong’s ambiguous stands. She won big in California’s major cities, taking 53 percent of the vote overall.
Boxer’s subsequent re-election campaign was much easier, thanks in part to her focus on California issues and the state’s growing Democratic majority. In 2004, she passed a tax holiday on overseas earnings if the money was reinvested at home, a very popular move.
Though Boxer initially planned to retire in 2004, the events of Sept. 11 inspired her to run again. Boxer won with 57 percent of the votes, which she said she interpreted as a mandate to support liberal causes.
Boxer has ignited controversy on a wide range of issues. She sparred publically with Bush administration secretary of state Condoleezza Rice during her confirmation hearings, accusing her ignoring the facts in the run-up to the Iraq war. In August 2008, she called Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as vice president “dangerous.”
In 2005, Boxer published a novel called "A Time to Run" about a female senator whose former lover tries to sabotage her career. She has also appeared in the television show Gilmore Girls and in the movie Traffic.
In 2007, Boxer became head of the Environment and Public Works Committee. When Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) became ill, Boxer also became chair of the Senate Ethics Committee.
Many predict California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) will run against Boxer in 2010.
