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| A RUNAWAY VICTORY | |
November 4, 1998 |
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John Wildermuth, political reporter for the San Francsico Chronicle, reports on Senator Boxer's successful re-election campaign. |
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SAN FRANCISCO: Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer was almost skipping as she made her way through the jubilant crowd at her election night headquarters in San Francisco. In a stunning and unexpected turnaround, she trounced Republican state Treasurer Matt Fong in a race that was called by the networks minutes after the polls closed. |
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| Surprising herself. | ||||||||||||||
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The 10-point margin even surprised Boxer, who was seen as wildly optimistic when she predicted a four- or five-point win the day before the election. But a sweeping victory by Democrat Gray Davis in the governor's race helped pull Boxer along, increased Democratic majorities in both houses of the Legislature and gained control of all but two of the state's eight constitutional offices. While Boxer called her win "a victory for the issues,'' it showed once again how important money and advertising are in a state the size of California. Boxer raised about $15 million for her race and spent about $9 million of it on an aggressively effective TV ad campaign portraying the mildly conservative Fong as a right-wing extremist. Fong, who couldn't match that spending, could only watch as the relentless flood of negative ads sent voters trooping to Boxer. Boxer's win also confirmed her reputation as one of the country's most underrated campaigners. Her 1992 election was viewed as a fluke by Republicans, who have had her at the top of their hit list for six years. But the last election the feisty liberal lost was a 1972 run for the Marin County Board of Supervisors and she kept that record intact with another come-from-behind win this year. --John Wildermuth |
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