Boxer makes rare visit to Bakersfield
| Tuesday, Aug 24 2010 05:55 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Aug 24 2010 06:11 PM
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U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, right, meets with Kern Community College District Chancellor Sandra Serrano, left, and Associate Chancellor John Means, center, during a visit to the Weill Institute of Bakersfield College in downtown Bakersfield Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., speaks at the Weill Institute of Bakersfield College in downtown Bakersfield Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., visits a solar technician class at the Weill Institute of Bakersfield College in downtown Bakersfield Tuesday.
It had been six years to the day -- Aug. 24, 2004 -- since U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer last visited Bakersfield.
But as the November election closes in with Boxer in a contentious race with Republican Carly Fiorina, the long-serving Democrat came back to Bakersfield on Tuesday to tour a clean-energy jobs training program, pose for pictures and talk about what she has done for the San Joaquin Valley.
During her 45-minute visit to the Weill Institute's Clean Energy Center in downtown Bakersfield, Boxer never mentioned Fiorina, who, according to the latest poll conducted by SurveyUSA, has a five-point lead over Boxer.
"There are 38 million people in California and I'd like to shake every hand," Boxer said. But getting things done is more important, she said, than trying to visit every corner of the state.
During a visit to a solar technology classroom, Boxer listened as students told her about how they lost their jobs -- but are now training for what they hope will be the jobs of the future.
"After 14 years as a construction supervisor, the economy fell apart," said 38-year-old student Aaron Luning. "I have a family. I needed to find something."
Boxer lauded the students for having the courage to enter the field of renewable energy.
"The whole world is going green," she told the students.
America can't continue indefinitely to spend billions on foreign oil, she added.
Following the tour, Kern Community College District Chancellor Sandra Serrano spoke to a small group of students, reporters and others about the importance of government investment in the retraining of the workforce.
She elicited laughter when she inadvertently introduced Boxer as a senator serving since 1923. Serrano quickly corrected herself, noting that Boxer began serving in 1993, after first serving 10 years in the House of Representatives.
Through her support of the Economic Recovery Act and other stimulus funding, Boxer said more than $412 million in construction and infrastructure projects has come to Kern County, including $28.5 million for the federal courthouse slated to be built alongside the Mill Creek pathway.
She said she fought hard to ensure that it would be built downtown.
But she acknowledged the economy is not where it needs to be.
"I know times are tough," she added. "I heard from students today who had to make a real U-turn" in their careers.
There were no county supervisors, city council members or other local politicians at Tuesday's non-public event.
But just hours before Boxer arrived, a group of local Republican and business leaders held a news conference to decry Boxer's record on taxes, regulation and other policies.
Bakersfield City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan, California Grape and Tree Fruit League Chairman David Marguleas, Kern County Farm Bureau President Don Davis and 32nd Assembly District GOP candidate Shannon Grove said they are asking voters to replace Boxer with Fiorina.
Andrea Saul, an official with the Fiorina campaign, said Boxer's support of stimulus funding has not resulted in anything close to an economic turnaround.
"The fact that Barbara Boxer would even dare to tout the so-called stimulus results ... is insulting to voters and shows how out of touch she is after 28 years in Washington," Saul said in an e-mail.
Despite Boxer's best efforts to convince voters otherwise, she said, "the numbers prove that her job-killing policies of higher taxes, more government and less water for the Central Valley have not created jobs in the Valley nor improved the lives of residents."
