ABSTRACT
The California Senate elections of 1992 would have been unusual in any case. Political scientists and observers should remain enthralled, for the two California Senate races raise extraordinary challenges to our understanding of voting behavior, political ambition, and gender politics. Voters make particular, gendered assumptions about women's issue competence, decision-making strengths, toughness, and their presumed leadership style. Both Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein outraised and outspent their general election opponents, while both had efficiently won their primaries spending less per primary vote than did their principal opponents. Feinstein and Boxer received the lionesses' share of money and media attention during the primary campaigns: the novelty of the races meant that the media and, apparently, the public, conceived of the campaigns as "Feinstein/Boxer and their opponents." In prior elections, each had endorsed the other's opponents, and neither ever actually endorsed the other during the primary campaign, although as Feinstein herself wryly noted, they came close.
