Barbara Boxer

Barbara Boxer, born Barbara Levy Boxer, is currently a Democratic U.S. Senator from California. She was first elected to office in 1992. During her terms in office, Boxer has advocated environmental issues, health care, women's rights, public safety, and the economy. She has proven to be dedicated to the causes that she said she would fight for. She has voted against bills such as the Firearms Manufacturer Bill (which failed) and voted for the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (which passes). She had decided to retire in 2004, but changed her mind because she is so passionate about what she believes in.

In September '04, Republican Bill Jones was Senator Boxer's "competition". In an article from The Sacramento Bee, Boxer linked Jones to Bush's administrations foreign and environmental policies and restrictions on stem-cell research. Boxer also notes that there are "300 'rollbacks'" in under the Bush administration. Boxer is known for fighting to protect the environment. While Boxer and Jones both supports stem-cell research, Jones opposes Prop-71 due to lack of state funds. Boxer states that "Bill Jones would make 90 percent of all abortions illegal". Boxer has always fought for women's rights, making her pro-choice on the situation of abortions. Bill Jones and his campaign spokesman made numerous allegations attacking Senator Boxer, and still, at the time this article was published, she maintained a significant lead over Jones.

By October, according to The Fresno Bee, Senator Boxer not only had a lead in the polls, but she also has a lead in fund raising. Towards the end of their campaigns, Boxer reported having $1.4 million, and Jones reported having less than $840,000. The differences between Boxer and Jones campaign were very evident. Boxer was the liberal; Jones was the conservative. Boxer didn't approve of the war in Iraq or Bush's policies on the environment, the economy, and health care. Jones strongly supported the president, particularly on the war in Iraq. I think Jones figured because California elected Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican, he might have an easier time getting votes. But you can attribute Schwarzenegger's "popularity" to Gray Davis' unpopularity. And Schwarzenegger was already famous. Nobody knew who Jones was, but everyone knew who Barbara Boxer was. His loss was practically inevitable.

After Senator Boxer's unsurprising re-election to Senate, one of her most noteworthy decisions was to urge Senate to keep the filibuster. A filibuster is something that the Senators use to postpone or delay actions from being made. Recently, the Republican Party wanted to do away