TREASURER MAY NEED WAR CHEST.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Days before she announced her resignation as U.S. Treasurer, Rosario Marin led a visitor out of her peach-colored Pennsylvania Avenue office, then paused abruptly to grab a bowl of chocolate coins.

``I like to say whoever visits the Treasury leaves a little bit richer,'' the former mayor of Huntington Park said with a laugh.

The easy smile, the warmth, the energy - it's all part of the package Republicans hope will make Marin a strong 2004 candidate for the U.S. Senate in California.

Not to mention that Marin is a Mexican-born Latina with a Horatio Alger life story, and a Republican who was elected to local office in a Democratic Southern California city.

As treasurer, her name appears on each of the $158 million in bills the government prints each day. But can Marin, who has never raised more than $32,287 for an election, come up with the kind of cash necessary to unseat Democrat Barbara Boxer?

``On paper, she brings a lot to the table - a good resume, a Hispanic woman. It's the kind of profile that really could give Boxer a good race,'' said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst for the Cook Political Report. ``But where is she going to get $20 million?''

California's 2004 primary is still nine months away, and most political attention now is trained on the recall attempt of Gov. Gray Davis. In the background, though, the list of candidates vying to defeat Boxer continues to fluctuate.

But when Marin, 44, announced Thursday she will resign June 30 to return to California for unspecified reasons - the revelation followed on the heels of Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, suddenly deciding not to run for Senate - the rumors of her candidacy increased.

Several GOP consultants said Marin's mind is all but made up.

``She's not leaving a nice job for nothing,'' one Republican strategist said.

Marin still isn't speaking about her political intentions. In a recent interview at her office in the U.S. Treasury Department, where the coffee table is stacked with books on Mexican art, she expounded on the importance of financial literacy, especially in Latino communities, and the need for a strong U.S.-Mexico relationship.

As for her political future in California, Marin said only, ``A lot of people have sought to talk to me regarding this issue. I've been very honored, very privileged. There seems to be a lot of people who are clamoring for a change.''

She declined interviews after announcing her resignation.

Often described as a moderate, the two most-repeated political descriptions of Marin are that she is pro-choice and that she supported President George W. Bush's initial proposal for a $726 billion tax cut this year.

Yet most Californians know little else about her views. Though she worked under former Gov. Pete Wilson for seven years, Marin said she opposed Proposition 187, a 1994 initiative that sought to bar many public services to illegal immigrants.

Asked about current political issues, like Gov. Davis' budget plan that includes an $8.3 billion annual boost in taxes, she laughs again, and says: ``I'm going to get in trouble, so I better not.''

Ask any California Republican strategist about Marin's strengths, and invariably the answer is, ``She's got a great story to tell.''

It begins in Mexico City where, according to Marin, ``I didn't know we were poor. I lived in a rich house with lots and lots of love.''

When Marin was 15, her father moved the family to Huntington Park, a city of 60,000 people four miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The label-making company for which her father worked provided the visas.

She entered high school not speaking a word of English and, because of that, was judged to have an IQ of 27.

``Instead of making me feel angry or upset, it just gave me the resolve to learn English right away - and well,'' she recalled. Marin studied English by day in the classroom and at night with her ear pressed to the radio. She graduated, went to work in a Beverly Hills bank, put herself through college at night and became an American citizen.

She married and gave birth to a son with Down syndrome. Her son, Eric, now 17, inspired Marin to activism. She started a support group for Latino parents of children with Down syndrome and testified in the state Legislature on the developmentally disabled.

In 1992, Wilson hired her as a legislative analyst for the Department of Developmental Services. She later was appointed to the state Council on Developmental Disabilities and, in 1997, was hired as a deputy director of Wilson's Los Angeles office of community relations.

In between, she won her first term on the Huntington Park City Council. It wasn't until she ran for re-election in 1999 that Marin's politics became controversial. While she said then, as now, that she opposed Proposition 187, her critics maintained she never voiced that opposition while working for Wilson.

``She may have privately said she wasn't for it, but she worked for him,'' said Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte. If Marin runs for U.S. Senate, Solis said, ``there's a lot of explaining that people are going to request of her.''

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said he thinks Marin will weather the storm.

``She can address that issue head-on, and the fact that when she worked for Pete Wilson she did not agree with his policies,'' Guerra said.

As a City Council member and mayor - a position rotated among council members in Huntington Park - Marin was known for encouraging retail development, promoting citizenship drives and winning friends among Democrats.

Mayor Richard Loya, a Democrat, said if it comes down to deciding between Marin and the incumbent Democrat - Boxer - he will be torn. And, he suspects, so will many other Latino voters.

``Will they cross over for a Latina Republican? I don't know. But if they were going to cross over, Rosario would be the one to draw them.''

Publicly, Republicans heap praise on Marin. Privately, many question her fund-raising prowess.

``It's not like she can just pick up the phone and start dialing from her Rolodex,'' said Duffy, the Cook Political Report analyst, who noted that Marin is not plugged into the business community, unlike other potential candidates such as Rep. George Radanovich, R-Fresno, or Silicon Valley entrepreneur Toni Casey.

Added Harry Pachon, president of the Claremont-based Tomas Rivera Policy Institute: ``It's paradoxical, isn't it, that the treasurer of the United States may have trouble raising money?

``If she raises the money, it's going to be a very interesting election in California.''

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Rosario Marin, who recently resigned as U.S. treasurer to return to California, could mount a serious challenge as a Mexican-American woman and a Republican to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, if Marin can raise the money to campaign effectively.

Marco Ugarte/Associated Press