Back in early, November Breitbart News featured a story about the speculation that California’s junior United States Senator, Barbara Boxer, might retire. The piece opened:
In 2016, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) will be up for re-election for the fifth time. California’s junior Senator was first elected in 1992, in a close race that she won by just under 5% of the vote. In all of her elections since, Boxer has handily dispatched her GOP opponents. Yet Boxer has an anemic $148,777 in campaign cash, according to her most recent filing with the Federal Elections Commission. That is fueling rumors–especially after Tuesday’s Republican takeover–that Boxer may soon retire.
Boxer, who would be 75 years old when being sworn into a 5th term, has made no formal announcement of her plans. But it is not uncommon, when a Senator dramatically slows the pace of his or her fundraising, that retirement becomes a serious consideration. This would especially be the case for a Senator who represents a state in which television advertising is more expensive than anywhere else in the nation.
Yesterday Politico penned a news story in which it talks further about the Boxer retirement rumors, saying that: “Sources close to Boxer, 74, say the outspoken liberal senator will decide over the holidays whether to seek reelection in 2016 and will announce her plans shortly after the new year. Few of her friends believe she will run for a fifth term. Boxer has stopped raising money and is not taking steps to assemble a campaign.”
California has become a reliably blue state, with Democrats again sweeping every statewide election last month, despite a dismally low 40% voter turnout that would have given some advantage, in theory, to Republican candidates.
The field of potential Democrats who might jump into the fray if Boxer retires include: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, and Attorney General Kamala Harris. The bench is deep, with several newly-elected statewide Democrats in theory poised to run as well, such as State Treasurer John Chiang and Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
In Boxer’s last election, in 2010, she handily bested former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina by ten points.
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