Sen. Barbara "Call me Senator" Boxer, facing a tightening race for a fourth term, is pounding the new Democratic mantra -- jobs, jobs, jobs -- while her signature issue, climate change, languishes on Capitol Hill."I know that job recovery is paramount -- I've known this for years, and we can do this with clean-energy jobs," the Rancho Mirage Democrat said in an interview last week. "It works."
Boxer may have a bit more selling to do in the Coachella Valley -- and across California, where higher than average unemployment and collapsing state revenues have created a financial crisis.
Against that backdrop, Boxer, who last won her seat with 58 percent of the vote, faces perhaps the toughest re-election fight of her Senate career this fall.
The Republicans lining up against her include former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina; Tom Campbell, a former California congressman and academic; and state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.
They depict her as a classic, big-spending liberal who's numb to the pains of working people and to the effects of record federal deficits and debt.
A recent Rasmussen survey of likely voters showed Boxer leading each of the three but lacking 50 percent against any of them, which is considered a sign of potential vulnerability for an incumbent.