By Town Crier Staff

If most Californians don’t know about Toni Casey now, they may by the time of the March 2004 primary election.

Casey, who made a controversial splash during her 12 years on the Los Altos Hills City Council, is challenging Barbara Boxer on the Republican ticket for U.S. senator.

Casey, fresh from a strong speech at the Sept. 14 Republican convention, is mounting a serious bid for the seat, already having amassed more than $318,000 in campaign funding. She has drawn endorsements from a loyal contingent of Los Altos Hills supporters who include Councilman Bob Fenwick, Mayor Emily Cheng, LSI Logic CEO Wilfred Corrigan and Tom LeFevre, co-founder of Intuit.

“If we can do well in our second round of financing which closes on Tuesday, we may very well keep anyone else from filing,” she wrote to supporters last week. “So far, I am the only candidate that has shown the courage and conviction to file with the Federal Elections Commission.”

Casey first must get past Rosario Marin, a Republican candidate who is scheduled to appear Thursday in Palo Alto at an event hosted by the South Peninsula Area Republican Coalition.

Describing herself as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate candidate who is “strong on national security and balanced on the environment,” Casey said she is best qualified to run against Boxer. Casey noted the “depth and breadth of my experience from high-tech to low-tech,” including a President Bush-appointed position in the Small Business Administration.

She thinks she will appeal to moderate Democrats and those who decline to state party affiliation, which she cites as the fastest growing segment of the state’s registered voters.

After 18 months in Washington, D.C., with the Bush administration and plunging headlong into state affairs, Casey has no longing to get back into local politics with the Los Altos Hills council.

“Not in the slightest,” she said without hesitation.