Unless you are in your mid-thirties or older, you don’t remember who our senators were before Senators Feinstein and Boxer. Both have held the office for the last 19 years.
But what do we really know about Feinstein, besides she is a liberal Senate Democrat by reputation.
Let’s start with her history. She has had an interesting political rise. It started back in 1969, (over 40 years ago) on the San Francisco board of supervisors. She served a couple of terms on the board. She had been planning to retire from politics, when Dan White killed Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone.
After the assassination she became mayor, the first woman mayor of San Francisco. She was re-elected twice in her own right as Mayor of San Francisco and considered a moderate during her tenure. She increased the strength of the police force, upgraded the sewer system and refurbished the cable car system. She also developing trading relationships with cities in Asia, Europe and Africa.
In 1990, she attempted a bid for governor, but lost to then Senator Pete Wilson. Luckily for Feinstein, this left a state office open for her, so she ran for the his senate seat and won, taking office in 1992. Representing all of California, just not in the way she originally intended.
Her Senate Career. She is the first California woman senator to represent our state (she took office before Senator Boxer). In that time, Senator Feinstein has developed a reputation on certain issues. According to Project Vote Smart, based on overall responses by various interest groups taken yearly on job performance in various areas that affect them. Senator Feinstein is very supportive of a woman’s right to choose, Animal rights groups, and civil liberties groups except the arab american civil rights groups. Senator Feinstein is also a defender of the environment. She gets mixed reviews from the business community, not necessarily a bad thing between the Occupy Movement and high unemployment. Some years she has protected the business community but more often than not she protects consumer rights. Generally she is considered a more progressive member of the senate.
Over the years she has had many achievements in the senate and they can be found on her website: bills she introduced and supported.
- Repealing the defense of marriage act
- Overseeing the US intelligence community & protecting national sercurity
- Blocking health insurance hikes
- Extending health insurance coverage to uninsured
- Securing our borders
- Restoring Lake Tahoe to her former beauty
- Banning dangerous chemicals from baby products
- Helping California farmers and legal workers
- Ending unwise energy subsidies- ethanol specifically
She works with both Republicans and Democrats to have accomplished her legislative priorities. Although considered a liberal she did support the Iraq war and the Patriot Act.
Although She hasn’t declared she is running, she has a 2012 campaign website that was recently updated!
There were rumors all over the web that speculated that the Senator would retire, seeing as she is 78 and at the end of her next term she would be 84, which isn’t old by Senate standards.
As far as election prospects go, she currently has one of the lowest approval ratings of her career. She is vulnerable especially with the presidents approval rating being low too. She could be a target for 2012. On the plus side, all the possible known Republicans that can run against her, do not even come close to catching her in a head to head poll or have already said they are not running.
On the side note, she is giving her campaign 5 million dollars due to Kinde Durkee, an accountant for a number of California Democrats who took campaigns funds for herself and lied to the Federal Election Committee in a number of races. Unfortunately Feinstein was a victim of her scheme. So all of Feinsteins previous campaign accountants are frozen.
This exempliary woman looks to be well on her way to a fifth term as she approaches the age of 79. She shows no signs of slowing down or backing down. She has made some incredible strides for the women of California, as mayor and senator. She continues to be an example of strong woman fighting for what she believes in.
Sources
No comments:
Post a Comment