http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-poll-boxer-feinstein-20141108-story.html By Seema Mehta
Although U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein — two of California's most experienced political figures — remain popular, a majority of state voters say they should not run for reelection, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
As analysts speculate about whether the Democratic stalwarts will seek additional six-year terms in coming years, 59% of registered voters said the state would be better off with new candidates for the two seats.
That sentiment was expressed by 79% of Republicans. But even many Democrats said it was time for new representation.
Forty-four percent of Democratic respondents preferred new candidates, compared with 43% who said Boxer and Feinstein should run again.
"I think they're old," said Rich Mettling, a 67-year-old retired regulatory analyst with Southern California Edison and a registered Democrat. "I'd like to see some fresh senatorial blood."
"They don't even sound like they're engaged sometimes," he said.
But Mettling, who lives in Burbank, added that he would never vote for a Republican to replace either Feinstein, 81, or Boxer, 73.
The GOP's capture of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday has intensified questions about whether California's senators, who were not on Tuesday's ballot, will seek another term. Boxer is up for reelection in 2016, Feinstein in 2018. Neither has said whether she will run again.
"I have no idea what I'm going to be doing in 2018," Feinstein said on CNN's "State of the Union" late last month. "That's four years from now. And that's one of the nice things of a six-year term. I've served two years of my term and, you know, I'll make a decision in due time."
A longtime confidant of Boxer said Thursday that she would announce her plans next year.
Pollsters cautioned that the findings were not a reflection of any vulnerability for either official, but rather a manifestation of voters' frustration over gridlock in the nation's capital.
"Both Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer can get reelected senator in California for as long as they want," said poll director Dan Schnur, head of USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. "No Republican is going to beat them, and no plausible Democrat is going to be foolish enough to run against them.
"What these numbers reflect," he said, "is general restlessness in an electorate and dissatisfaction with the way politics is practiced in Washington, D.C."
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