Independent Sources has learned that Senator Barbara Boxer will run for no more than one more term. The 64 year old junior senator from California, first elected in 1992, looks to call it quits after her next term ends in 2016.

How do we know? No one owned the URL “boxer2016.com” — until we bought it! But someone beat us to “Boxer2010.com.”

Boxer has received a lot of attention lately. Since the start of the year she has received press as an opponent of the Bush administration — a magnet for those reeling after November’s losses. She has opposed Alberto Gonzales’ nomination as Attorney General, effectively called Condoleezza Rice a liar during her nomination hearings, and challenged certification of the November election results in Ohio — an effort she lost 74-1 in the Senate. All this has created a small groundswell of support for a Boxer presidential candidacy in 2008.

Edward Kennedy (D-MA), the public face of the Democratic party’s left wing, will be 73 this month — nine years older than Boxer. He runs for reelection next year, although he has not announced his intention to do so. His retirement in 2006 or 2012 would clear the way for the Californian to assume his role in the Senate.

Boxer has been remarkably lucky in the opponents she has faced, with the California Republican party ritually offering up strange or too-conservative candidates against an opponent that should be defeatable. In 1992, Boxer defeated academic / pundit Bruce Herschensohn by 4.9 points; in 1998, political scion Matt Fong by 10, and in 2004 she beat bland, overmatched Bill Jones by 20. If she runs for one more term in 2010, as Independent Sources predicts, that progression means she should defeat an unknown pro-life Republican bureaucrat by 40 points.

Should the Senator decide to run in 2016 — she’ll be 76, and many have served longer — Independent Sources will be happy to make the “boxer2016.com” domain available … to the highest bidder. We believe in markets, after all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 11:33 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Barbara Boxer, Brilliant, but uncategorizable, California Schemin', Nemesises ... Nemesi?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.