CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS / U.S. SENATE : Boxer Unveils TV Ads Aimed at Women Viewers

WASHINGTON — Portraying herself as a fighter poised to upset the U.S. Senate, Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae) Wednesday unveiled a series of television commercials that seek to appeal to women voters who have provided the backbone of support for her candidacy.

The 30-second advertisements, her first television spending this year, promote Boxer’s efforts to push abortion rights legislation through Congress and show her marching on Capitol Hill with other women lawmakers during the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings.

“It’s time to shake that place up,” Boxer says of the Senate in one of three ads. “They’ve forgotten who they represent. They’re out of touch. If you want more of the same, I’m not your candidate. But if you want change, if you want a fighter for choice and jobs and the environment, you have a choice.”

As a five-term congresswoman who was embarrassed by her role in the House bank scandal, Boxer was criticized Wednesday by one opponent for trying to craft an image as an agent of change.

“The main fight that Barbara has been fighting recently was trying to avoid disclosing that she (had 143 overdrafts) at the House bank,” said Roy Behr, campaign manager for California Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy. “And when you add in the fact that she spent $40,000 on taxpayer-financed VIP travel on Air Force jets and has one of the worst attendance records in the Congress, it’s hard to conclude that she represents the kind of change we need.”

Boxer, McCarthy and Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica) are competing in the Democratic primary for the six-year Senate seat being vacated by Alan Cranston. The election will be held June 2.

The Boxer ads, narrated by actor Martin Sheen, were scheduled to begin airing in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Tuesday. But a source at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles said the ads were canceled through Thursday because tapes had not been delivered as of Wednesday afternoon.

The commercials were scheduled to be seen over the next two weeks during many popular network programs that typically attract large numbers of women viewers.

“We’re particularly interested in energizing women,” said Jim Margolis, a Los Angeles-based media consultant who produced the ads. “Where (Boxer’s opponents) may not go to ‘Designing Women,’ ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Oprah,’ we will.”

In her commercials, Boxer steers clear of the Los Angeles riots except for a momentary black and white image of an uprising on the city’s streets that is intended to depict a troubled California. Her campaign research found that Californians are “very sensitive” to the appearance of politicians trying to make “political hay” out of the riots, Margolis said.

Boxer, who is in Washington this week to vote in favor of a House emergency aid bill that would produce $822 million in business loans and disaster relief payments to Los Angeles, has attributed the cause of the riots to the failure of two Republican administrations to pay attention to urban problems.

In other commercials that also began airing this week, Levine issued a strong law-and-order message that blamed the rioting on a “failure of political leadership.” Levine is expected to spend $4 million before the primary on a TV advertising blitz.

McCarthy is scheduled to begin advertising next week. He and Boxer are expected to spend more than $1 million apiece on commercials in the closing weeks of the campaign.

One Boxer ad touts her efforts as a congresswoman to fight for safety laws following railroad chemical spills in California, provide Medicaid funding for abortions for rape and incest victims and set aside $5 billion in loan guarantees to businesses hurt by defense cuts. The abortion funding bill was vetoed and the pro-business legislation was introduced two weeks ago.

Another ad sounds a familiar theme echoed by presidential aspirant Ross Perot and other political candidates--the U.S. government should stop subsidizing military operations overseas and devote the money to domestic programs. The commercial poses the question, “Why are we spending $150 billion a year to defend Europe and Japan?”

It is unclear, however, whether the Defense Department currently is contributing $150 billion to that defense. The Boxer campaign cited a Brookings Institution study that reported the $150-billion figure for fiscal year 1990. Though precise amounts were not available, a source at the Brookings Institution said the figure is most likely billions lower today after the end of the Cold War.

The ad ends with Boxer saying, “It’s time to take care of our own.” That same slogan was used last year by the campaign of Sen. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.).

“That is something Barbara has used in her speeches for a year,” Boxer campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski said of the slogan. “I’ve always assumed it is original. . . .”