Boxer vs. Schwarzenegger in 2010: The Most Glamorous Senate Race Ever?

The best political news I've received in the past week is the surprise announcement that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) intends to run for reelection in 2010. Wrote Sen. Boxer in her email announcement:

"As I stood on the Senate floor recently, calling on President Bush to change course in Iraq and start bringing our troops home, I realized that this President has had his way for so long, with a subservient rubber-stamp Republican Congress...

"... it will take years to restore America as a country of hope, opportunity, and fairness, once again regaining our place as a moral world leader.

"That's why I am writing to let you know, with deep commitment and excitement, that I have decided to run again for the United States Senate!"

This surprise announcement is fraught with deceptively deep political implications.

Three-term Sen. Boxer, who is the powerful Chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment, will be 70 years old in 2010, and was widely expected to retire. It's well known that she harbored second thoughts before standing for reelection in 2004.

Barbara vs. Arnold?
Strongly rumored to be considering a run for the Senate in 2010 is none other than mega movie-star Republican, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold would presumably crush any lesser known Democrat running against him, as he did in his 2006 gubernatorial reelection.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a charismatic, rising superstar in the Republican Party, and his ambitions know few (if any) bounds. No one doubts that Arnold, who is ineligible to be President, would dearly love to take a star turn in the U.S. Senate.

But standing in the way of Arnold's D.C. ambitions may unexpectedly be Sen. Barbara Boxer, one of the most popular and progressive senators in blue state California history. Sen Boxer beat her 2004 Republican opponent by a margin of more than 20%, and garnered the most votes (6,955,728 votes) ever cast in California for a U.S. senator.

Is it merely coincidence that Sen. Boxer found renewed energy for reelection when faced with the strong prospect of a Republican taking her Senate seat? I think not.

The interesting question is: Will Arnold take the big gamble of running against popular incumbent Sen. Boxer? Or will the governator shelve his storied political career to return to the silver screen?

I have one easy prediction: a senatorial race pitting glamorous Republican maverick Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger against progressive heroine Sen. Barbara Boxer would be THE post-2008 election political headline grabber. And the likely end of either political superstar's career.

And a Boxer-Schwarzenegger contest would more fun to watch than the already tedious 2-year 2008 race for the White House...

Related Reading
Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's Newest Democrat
Profile of U.S. Senator Barbara Box of California