The 1992 United States Senate election in California took place on November 3, 1992, at the same time as the special election to the United States Senate in California. Incumbent Democrat Alan Cranston decided to retire. Democrat Barbara Boxer won the open seat. This election was noted as both of California's senators were elected for the first time. This is not a unique occurrence; it would happen again in Tennessee in 1994, Kansas in 1996, and Georgia in 2021. Fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein, California's senior senator, won the special election and was inaugurated in November 1992.
The general election between Boxer and Herschensohn was very close. At the eleventh hour, controversy emerged that the Republican nominee attended a strip club, which some Republican operatives later blamed for Herschensohn's loss.[5]
Four days before Election Day polls showed Herschensohn had narrowed a double digit deficit, trailing by 3 points. Political operativeBob Mulholland disrupted a campaign appearance with a large poster advertising a strip club shouting "Should the voters of California elect someone who frequently travels the strip joints of Hollywood?" Herschensohn admitted he had visited a strip club once, with his girlfriend and another couple. With press coverage of the story, Herschensohn spent the waning days of the campaign denying related allegations. When the votes were cast and counted, Boxer won the election by five points.[6] Although Republicans have blamed the defeat on the underhanded tactics of the Boxer campaign, evidence of the connection between Mulholland's outburst and the campaign never surfaced.[7][8][9]
Results
The election was very close. Boxer was declared the winner by the Associated Press at 1:22 A.M. Pacific Coast Time.
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Salladay, Robert (December 7, 2005). "Governor Faces Revolt in GOP". Los Angeles Times. p. A-1. Retrieved December 9, 2008. Bob Mulholland, publicly accused Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Herschensohn of visiting a Sunset Boulevard strip club. Herschensohn had been running as the traditional-values candidate. Amid the controversy, Herschensohn lost the Senate race to Democrat Barbara Boxer, and the GOP was outraged at what it called a "smear campaign." Kennedy suspended Mulholland, but he soon returned to the party.
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