My Senator(1): Barbara Boxer
.As with Nancy Pelosi, I didn’t know too much about Barbara Boxer. But I had vague memories of having read coverage of her that I considered favorable. Her official biography page was appealing, as it put the environment in first place.
She appears to be strong on the environment, which I approve of strongly. She seems good on health care, but isn’t taking the position that we need a statewide (or nationwide) public system—at least not yet.
She’s pro-choice, which I consider a significant plus.
Her biography proudly cites a 20% tax cut for broadband provision to rural and/or underserved areas, which I suspect sounds better than it performs. Still, some awareness there is a good thing.
Naturally, Boxer’s Wikipedia page has more detail about her than her official bio. And oddly, the Wikipedia entry has a number of highlights not on her official bio:
- She objected to the certification of the Ohio votes in 2004.
- She voted against the resolution granting Bush the right to use military force against Iraq in 2002.
- She co-sponsored a resolution calling for a troop withdrawal timetable in 2005.
- She voted to require a paper trail from all electronic voting machines (I guess I have to give Hillary Clinton credit for this one too).
- She voted against the confirmations of Condoleeza Rice, John Bolton, John Roberts, and Samuel Alito (and filibustered Bolton).
- She wrote a resolution calling on the US to not recognize the Taliban government of Afghanistan—in 1997.
- She voted in favor of Russ Feingold’s motion to censure President Bush.
Those are all excellent positions, and some of them put her in a distinct minority at the time of the votes, and for that she deserves a great deal of credit.
She apparently doesn’t support same-sex marriage but does support same-sex domestic partnerships. Better than being against both, but not a position I’m fond of.
She is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (she chairs that one), and so is clearly quite senior (she’s also the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip).
Open Secrets says that her total worth is $1,350,013 to $5,827,001, 44th amongst all senators. She seems to come from an upper-class or upper-middle-class background, but seems significantly less rich than Pelosi or Feinstein—which I consider a good thing, as I regard their wealth with quite a lot of suspicion, and consider it not at all coincidental that their places relative to each other on the politic spectrum more or less match their riches.
On the other hand, her top contributor is Time Warner. Followed by Viacom. Sigh. I’m not a fan of those companies, and feel that Senators taking money from vast entertainment conglomerates tends to make them blind to issues of importance to me, such as repealing the DMCA and otherwise fighting against attempts to control culture, the internet, and technology.
Overall, however, I’m quite impressed with her, and if (as some consider likely) Schwarzenegger runs against her in 2010, I might even consider doing some work for her campaign.
Lastly, given my David Lynch fandom and recent Inland Empire review, I was quite perturbed to see that she has an Inland Empire office…