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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Sen. Barbara Boxer|Won’t Seek Fifth Term

(CN) - California Senator Barbara Boxer said Thursday that she will not seek re-election in 2016.

Boxer, 74, a four-term Democratic senator, served five terms in the U.S. House before she was elected senator for her first term in 1992.

Her announcement was not unexpected.

News pundits reacted by jumping on the ages of California's most powerful politicians - all Democrats.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, re-elected to a fourth term last year, is 81.

Governor Jerry Brown, 76, will be termed out in 4 years, after serving four intermittent terms as governor.

Fifteen-term Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority leader, is 74.

Speculation immediately started about who would seek Boxer's seat.

Attorney General Kamala Harris, 50, and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, 47, lead the list.

Los Angeles Mayor Gil Garcetti, 43, told The New York Times on Thursday that he would not seek Boxer's seat. The Times reported that former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 61, is more interested in running for governor after Brown steps down.

Barring tidal political shifts, Democrats are expected to hold onto Boxer's Senate seat.

Statewide, California is strongly Democratic, though there are local and regional right-wing Republican strongholds, especially in Southern California, outside of the San Diego and Los Angeles urban districts.

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