Barbara Boxer

California

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Friday, November 10, 2006

One of the Senate's most liberal members, Boxer, 65, has been a champion of environmental causes. She has been a leader of the Democrats' efforts to block drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has pushed for stiffer drinking-water standards and lower emissions of toxic substances from power plants.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Boxer moved to California's Bay Area in the 1960s and crusaded against the Vietnam War and development of local wetlands. She has defended abortion rights and other feminist issues.

She is a staunch supporter of gun control, but the airline-safety measures she advocated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks included allowing qualified pilots to carry guns in the cockpit. In January 2005, she was the only senator who dissented when the electoral count from the presidential race was read aloud to a joint session of Congress. She protested that President Bush did not deserve the electoral votes from Ohio that gave him a second term.