Politics

Boxer Grabs Lead In California

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 23, 1998 / 1:19 PM EDT / CBS

Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer has bounced back to take a slight lead over GOP challenger Matt Fong in the California Senate race, according to a new Los Angeles Times poll.

The survey gave Boxer a 49-45 percent edge over Fong among those considered likely to vote. Boxer had been trailing Fong in the polls in recent weeks.

The Times said her resurgence evidently stemmed from a series of hard-hitting TV commercials attacking Fong's position on gun control, abortion and HMO reform.

Boxer has outspent Fong on TV advertising by about 2-1. TV advertising is even more important in California than other states because local television stations devote very little air time to politics.

The poll showed Fong with a 52-41 percent lead among men and Boxer with a 56-37 percent edge among women. Both candidates retain strong support among members of their own political party, but Boxer holds a whopping 62-26 percent lead among middle-of-the-road voters.

CBS News Correspondent Jerry Bowen filed this report on the Boxer-Fong race:

She's known as a scrappy fighter. And Barbara Boxer is having to scrap and scrape to keep her California Senate seat. For starters, she's a feminist Democrat with a slight Clinton problem.

It was Boxer, remember, who led the congressional women's charge of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas and then Sen. Bob Packwood. She was slower to criticize Bill Clinton's sex life.

"He should have taken responsibility much earlier," Boxer said of the president.

Her republican opponent, state treasurer Matt Fong, pounced early and often.

"Barbara Boxer, your silence for that seven months was certainly deafening. But your hypocrisy of the way you've just presented yourself is ear-splitting," he said.

Her problem's even more complex: Clinton is family. Boxer's daughter is married to Hillary Clinton's brother. But he's also her president, more popular in California than Boxer herself. She's happy to stay tied to the president's coattails, in spite of the scandal.

And Mr. Clinton is still the party's leading fund-raiser. He is scheduled for yet another California visit this weekend to pull in even more money for Boxer's final media blitz. And it's a big-bucks TV campaign that both candidates are waging. Boxer is hitting Fong hard on abortion.

"Since 1993, extremists in government have tried over 100 times to restrict a woman's right to choose," says a Boxer ad.

"My opponent says I oppose a woman's right to choose. She is not telling the truth," Fong fires back in his own ad.

Each candidate has been raiding the other's territory. Boxer has campaigned in San Francisco's Chinatown. Fong has campaigned in the Jewish community in Beverly Hills. And the race is incredibly tight. And that's why the Clinton factor just might count.

Susan Pinkus, director of the Times poll, says voter turnout may well decide the race.

And wo will turn out? Voters disgusted either by President Clinton's behavior or his Republican critics, motivated just enough, perhaps, to decide a race too close to call.