DeVore throws hat in the ring

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore knows it’ll be tough to defeat U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, so he’s getting a head start.

The Laguna Beach lawmaker hasn’t taken the oath of office for his third term, but officially launched his bid Wednesday against the 15-year Democratic incumbent, who is up for reelection in 2010.

Boxer declared her intention early to seek another term in February 2007.

Ironically, the staunch conservative is looking to the example of President-elect Barack Obama and seeks to model his campaign after the Democratic senator’s.

“Barack Obama started running for president months after being sworn into the Senate,” DeVore said. “Politics in America is a highly competitive endeavor. I’m not a billionaire and I’m not a tool of the special interests, so I have to get an early start. That early start will give me the ability to get my message out to the public, and I’ll sink or swim on that.”

Michael Glover, the Democrat who has twice unsuccessfully ran against DeVore and lost to him just this month, slammed DeVore on Wednesday for his political ambitions.

“If he wants to run for U.S. Senate, fine,” Glover said in a commentary for the Coastline Pilot. “Resign and pay for it himself.”

DeVore called Glover’s comments a “cheap partisan shot” and said the Democrat “never called to congratulate me when I won two years ago or this month.”

Glover said Wednesday that he e-mailed his congratulations to DeVore.

Impressed with how Obama used new media to power his campaign, DeVore said he will use the same tools such as social networking sites like Facebook, blogging and a YouTube channel. DeVore announced his bid Wednesday on a webcast from Sacramento.

California has not had a Republican representative in the U.S. Senate in almost two decades. Democratic registration numbers in the state and across the country have been rising.

“Barbara Boxer wants more of the same from Washington, D.C. Only Republicans can turn the tide. Only the Republicans have a record of fiscal responsibility. Only the Republicans have a sound commitment to national defense,” DeVore said.

He criticized Boxer for her opposing oil drilling off the California coast, and cited that as one of the primary issues that spurred his bid.

Boxer says she supports more drilling in the 68 million acres of oil leases already owned by the oil companies in areas they haven’t tapped; however, she doesn’t want to lift the California moratorium on offshore drilling because she thinks that some new drilling operations would scar the state’s coastline in a way that would deal a blow to tourism.

“Where drilling is appropriate, she’s for expanding it; but where it would hurt our economy, she’s opposed to it,” said Rose Kapolczynski, spokeswoman for Boxer’s campaign.

Despite a statewide edge in registration for Democrats, Boxer says that she takes the challenge seriously, and that attracting Democrats alone is not enough to win an election.

DeVore said, at least initially, he will try to drive home two other issues. He’s a strong advocate for increased use of nuclear power, and he plans to focus on the need to cut taxes.

DeVore framed his advocacy for nuclear power as an environmental as well as an energy issue. Nuclear power, he argued, will help California cut greenhouse gases and increase security by allowing California and the nation to wean itself off the reliance on foreign oil, which, he said, “enriches countries, many of which hate us and actively fund terror campaigns against us.”

DeVore believes that offshore drilling, because of technological advances, is safer than importing it from supertankers. The lawmaker also argued that the country’s corporate tax rate is too high, which is damaging to California because its economy relies on venture capital for ideas and innovation, he said.

“Raising taxes drives investment off our shores,” DeVore said.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com. PAUL ANDERSON may be reached at (714) 966-4633 or at paul.anderson@latimes.com.