Barbara Boxer says she came up for the idea for the super PAC just days after leaving office and after the election of Trump. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images State Playbook interviews Barbara Boxer launches super PAC attack on Issa

OAKLAND, Calif. — Just months after retiring from Congress, former California Sen. Barbara Boxer has already raised more than $1.3 million for a new super PAC aimed at helping Democrats regain control of Congress in the 2018 elections. And on Wednesday, she launches her first salvo — a blistering attack ad targeting GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, considered the most vulnerable House member in California.

The ad from Boxer’s PAC for a Change is the first in a new “Resist and Replace” campaign which the ex-senator promises will relentlessly target California Republicans who have been “cowering in the corner” as President Donald Trump attempts to dismantle programs such as the Affordable Care Act.


“We’re using humor, but we’re dealing with a deadly serious issue,’’ said Boxer in an interview Tuesday at a local coffee shop in Oakland, where she has a home. Issa, like every member of the California Republican delegation, she noted, voted in favor of the House bill to repeal the ACA — and “we’re not going to let these people get away with targeting their own voters with pain and suffering.”

The 30-second spot titled “Darrel-iction” depicts Issa as a bobblehead doll who nods his head incessantly in tandem with Trump — who is also depicted as a bobblehead. The spot’s hip-hop track jabs at the embattled House Republican, who barely survived his last race by just 1,600 votes: “His name is Darrell Issa, Mr. Nice-uh. He’s going to take away our health care. But Issa doesn’t care, 'cause Trump says, “Darrell, we need to pay for tax cuts — millionaire tax cuts.”

The ad, she said, will be rolled out with "big buys" on social media — though she would not specify an amount.

Boxer says she came up for the idea for the super PAC just days after leaving office and after the election of Trump. “I plunged right in, I didn’t take a breath,’’ she said, adding that she quickly brought together some of the veteran researchers and strategists who helped her during successful campaigns in 24 years in the Senate.

The former senator said that her “100 percent volunteer” effort has included reaching out to her email list of more than a million names, and seeking fundraising assists from former colleagues and friends like Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, whose role as the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee has turned him into a party rainmaker.

Boxer's independent efforts to help flip the House in 2018 is reflective of other fundraising drives around the country by Democrats convinced that Trump’s historically low poll numbers — combined with his actions in office — will fuel new opportunities for pickups in the 2018 midterms.

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In California alone, another key Democratic super PAC aimed at 2018 is the Fight Back California PAC launched by former Democratic Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, who represented the East Bay’s 10th Congressional district for more than a decade. The specific targets of Tauscher's super PAC, which is supported by veteran Democratic strategist Katie Merrill, are seven Republicans in districts won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. They include Reps. Jeff Denham of Turlock; David Valadao of Hanford; Steve Knight of Palmdale; Ed Royce of Fullerton; Mimi Walters of Irvine; Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach — and Issa of Vista.

Boxer acknowledges that Issa, seeking to hold off a score of Democratic challengers, has been tacking to the center in recent weeks. This week he called for a House Judiciary Committee hearing on white supremacist movements in the wake of Charlottesville.

"It's too little, too late,'' Boxer said of Issa. "His stripes are so painted on, for so many years. He believes his own election-year conversion, but he voted to take away protections — family planning funding, seniors care — for his own people."

She promised Issa won't be the last Republican to be targeted by her super PAC. "We'll be putting in enough money to impact all these races," said Boxer, who was considered one of the most liberal members of the Senate before she retired last year and was succeeded by former California Attorney General Kamala Harris.



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