barbara boxer

"Landep News"

Acknowledging that not all the votes were counted, but “things are moving in our direction,” Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer nonetheless gave a victory speech to hundreds of supporters gathered in Hollywood.

“We stood up to Karl Rove and we won. We stood up to Sarah Palin and we won,” she said in a line that got the biggest cheer of the night.

Sen. Boxer took the stage at the Hollywood Rennaisance Hotel at about 11:20 p.m. Pacific time and told the cheering crowd that she had already spoken to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Calling this race the “toughest” of her career, she said her mission upon her return to Washington would be to focus on jobs, immigration reform and continuing work to repeal the military’s “Dont Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“I’m going to focus on small business and jobs,” she said. “I want to see the words ‘Made in America’; and not see additional jobs shipped overseas. In a veiled, but pointed reference to her opponent, former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Carly Fiorna, Sen. Boxer went out of her way to thank “from the bottom of my heart,” the four former H-P employees whom she featured in one of her campaign commercials attacking Ms. Fiorina’s tenure as CEO.

In her one mild gaffe of the night, she congratulated the San Francisco Giants for beating the Texas Rangers to win baseball’s World Series on Monday night. A dangerous thing to do deep in the heart of Los Angeles Dodgers country and the statement was met with a smattering of hearty boos.

Earlier in the evening, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went on the attack against defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and called California a “fire line” against the Republican gains made in other parts of the nation.

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