Dianne Feinstein
 | |
| Office: | Senior Senator, California |
|---|---|
| Political party: | Democratic |
| Term of office: | January, 1993–present |
| Preceded by: | John F. Seymour |
| Succeeded by: | Incumbent (2007) |
| Born: | June 22, 1933 San Francisco, California |
| Died: | |
| Spouse: | (1) Jack Berman, deceased (2) Bertram Feinstein, deceased |
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born June 22, 1933) is a Democratic U.S. Senator from California, a position she has held since 1992. She was also San Francisco's first (and to date, only) woman mayor.
Contents |
Early life and career
Senator Dianne Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman[1] in San Francisco to Jewish-American parents. Her father, Leon Goldman, was a nationally renowned surgeon who was the first Jewish person made tenured physician at the University of California Medical Center.[2] She received her B.A. degree in history in 1955 from Stanford University. In 1957, she married Jack Berman, a colleague in the San Francisco District Attorney's office. They were divorced three years later.
In 1962, shortly after starting her career in politics, she married neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein, who died of colon cancer in 1978.
In 1980, she married Richard C. Blum, an investment banker. Their personal fortune is estimated to be between $25 and $50 million.
Feinstein's daughter, Katherine Feinstein Mariano, is a superior court judge in San Francisco.
Political career
In 1969, Feinstein won a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which she held for nine years, becoming the first female president of the Board. During her tenure, she unsuccessfully ran for mayor of San Francisco twice (in 1971 against mayor Joseph Alioto and in a 1975 contest for a runoff slot against George Moscone, losing by one percentage point to supervisor John Barbagelata).
In November 1978, San Francisco mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated by a rival politician, Dan White, who had resigned from the Board of Supervisors only two weeks prior. As president of the Board of Supervisors, Feinstein automatically ascended to the mayoral position on December 4. She served out the remainder of the term and was elected in her own right in 1979 and re-elected in 1983. In 1984 she proposed banning handguns in San Francisco, and became subject to a recall attempt organized by the White Panther Party. She won the recall election and finished her second term as mayor on January 8, 1988.
In 1990 Ms. Feinstein made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of California, losing to Republican Senator Pete Wilson, who vacated his seat in the Senate to assume the governorship. In 1992, she was fined $190,000 for failure to properly report campaign contributions and expenditures associated with that campaign.[3]
In 2003, Ms. Feinstein was ranked the fifth wealthiest Senator, with an estimated net worth of $26 million. [4] Although the Senator is not currently a member, she served on the Trilateral Commission during the 1980s while mayor of San Francisco, and is now a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
U.S. Senate career
In 1992, Feinstein won a special election to fill the Senate seat which became vacant in 1990 when Pete Wilson was elected governor (in an election against Feinstein). She was re-elected in 1994, again in 2000, and is running for a third full term in 2006. In 1998 and 2003, some advised her to run for governor, but she declined.
Because of her record of compromising with Republicans, Feinstein is distrusted by some on the political left. She is often labeled unfavorably by them as pro-business, as she has voted for most lawsuit reform measures and was a co-sponsor of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. She voted for the first tax cuts in 2001 and also for the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act in 2003. Both positions were unpopular with many in her own party.
Senator Feinstein supported the use of military force in Iraq and recently has claimed that she was "misled" by Bush on the reasons for going to war. The Center for Public Integrity has reported that Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, are making millions of dollars from Iraq (and Afghanistan) contracts through his company, Perini. [5]
Senator Feinstein was the original Democrat co-sponsor of a bill to extend the Patriot Act. In a "Statement by Senator Dianne Feinstein On the President’s Comments Regarding Patriot Act and Domestic Spying," Senator Feinstein stated: "I believe the Patriot Act is vital to the protection of the American people."
Feinstein is a firm supporter of capital punishment and of a constitutional amendment to ban the "desecration" of the American flag. Critics point out positions like these to indicate that she is not a "true" or "loyal" Democrat. Defenders point to her record on other issues: she voted against NAFTA (although she voted for CAFTA), the Defense of Marriage Act, school prayer, welfare reform, and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005.
She has numerous critics on the political right as well. Her support for abortion rights has earned her the ire of pro-life groups. She is also opposed by gun rights organizations, who say that her proposals on gun control are unconstitutional and that Feinstein herself is hypocritical for making such proposals despite having had a concealed carry permit—difficult to obtain in California—during her tenure as a San Francisco politician.
In 1993, Feinstein, along with then-Representative Charles Schumer (D-NY), led the fight to ban many semi-automatic firearms and restrict the sale of firearm magazines deemed "assault weapons." The ban was passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. In 2004, when the ban was set to expire, Feinstein sponsored a 10-year extension of the ban as an amendment to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; while the amendment was successfully added, the act itself failed. The act was then revived in 2005, and, despite Feinstein's best efforts, was passed without an extension of the assault weapons ban.
Dianne Feinstein is a member of the U.S. Senate Committees on: Appropriations, Rules and Administration, Intelligence, Judiciary, and Energy and Natural Resources. She is the only woman on the Judiciary Committee and is the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.
See also
- California government and politics
- Todd Chretien, Green Party candidate challenging Feinstein for U.S. Senate in 2006
http://news.com.com/2060-10796_3-0.html?tag=nefd.bl
References
- ^ Fa - Fe. Real Names of Famous Folk. URL accessed on October 14, 2005.
- ^ Seymour "Sy" Brody. Dianne Feinstein: United States Senator From California. Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America. URL accessed on October 14, 2005.
- ^ Millionaires populate U.S. Senate. CNN.com. URL accessed on June 13, 2003.
External links
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Official U.S. Senate site
- Official Campaign site
- Campaign contributions and funds: profile of Dianne Feinstein
- California's 2006 Candidates for US Senate
- Dianne Feinstein's Project Syndicate op/eds
- Political Skeletons, Cut and Pasted A New York Times commentary which refers to this Wikipedia article
- About.com Profile of US Senator Dianne Feinstein of California
- Former Feinstein staffer edited Wikipedia entries
- VoteSmart profile of Dianne Feinstein
| Preceded by: George Moscone | Mayor of San Francisco 1978–1988 | Succeeded by: Art Agnos |
| Preceded by: John F. Seymour | United States Senator (Class 1) from California November 10, 1992–present Served alongside: Alan Cranston, Barbara Boxer | Incumbent |
