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Dianne Feinstein

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Dianne Feinstein
Senior Senator, California
In office
1992–present
Preceded byJohn F. Seymour
Succeeded byIncumbent (2007)
Personal details
Nationalityamerican
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)(1) Jack Berman (Judge), divorced

(2) Bertram Feinstein, deceased

(3) Richard C. Blum

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) female mayor.

Early life and career

Senator Dianne Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman[1] in San Francisco to a Jewish father and a mother, Betty Rosenburg, who was of mixed Jewish and Russian Orthodox descent. She has two sisters, Lynne Kennedy and Yvonne Banks. Her father, Leon Goldman (d. 1975), 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 1956, she married Jack Berman, a colleague in the San Francisco District Attorney's office. They were divorced three years later. Berman later became a judge; he died in 2002. 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.

According to Feinstein's 2005 personal financial disclosure, her net worth is between $43 million and $99 million dollars. In 2003, Feinstein was ranked the fifth wealthiest senator, with an estimated net worth of $26 million. [3]

Feinstein's daughter, Katherine Feinstein Mariano (b. 1957), is a superior court judge in San Francisco.

Feinstein served on the Trilateral Commission during the 1980s while mayor of San Francisco, and is now a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Early political career

Prior to elected service, she was appointed by former California Governor Pat Brown to serve as a member of the California Women Parole Board.

In 1969, Feinstein won a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She remained on the Board for nine years, becoming its first female president.

During her tenure, she unsuccessfully ran for mayor of San Francisco twice, in 1971 against mayor Joseph Alioto, and in 1975, when she lost the contest for a runoff slot (against George Moscone) by one percentage point, to supervisor John Barbagelata.

Mayor of San Francisco

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. Feinstein announced the assassinations to the stunned public, stating: "As president of the board of supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement. Both Mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed."[1] 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 1985, she talked publicly about the hunt for the Night Stalker, but in so doing angered detectives by giving away too many details of his crimes, thus impeding their investigation.[2]

In 1987, City and State Magazine named her the nation's "Most Effective Mayor."

Feinstein is credited in the Academy Award-winning documentary film, The Times of Harvey Milk.

Governor's race

In 1990, 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]

U.S. Senate career

File:FEINPRESS.jpg
Sen. Feinstein listens to testimony at a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In 1992, Feinstein won a special election to fill the Senate seat which became vacant in 1990 when Pete Wilson was elected governor.

Feinstein was re-elected in 1994 and again in 2000.

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.

Political positions and votes

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.

Feinstein supported the Iraq war resolution; she has claimed that she was misled by President 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. [4] There have also been critics who argue that Feinstein's support of policies that are friendly to the Chinese government are because of her husband's extensive China-related business holdings.

Senator Feinstein was the original Democratic co-sponsor of a bill to extend the USA PATRIOT Act. In a December 2005 statement, Senator Feinstein stated, "I believe the Patriot Act is vital to the protection of the American people." [5]

Feinstein is a supporter and co-sponsor of the H-1B Visa program.

Feinstein is a supporter of capital punishment, and she was the main Democratic sponsor of the failed 2006 constitutional flag burning amendment. [6] 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 (although she personally believes that marriage is between one man and one woman), school prayer, welfare reform, and the 2005 bankruptcy bill.

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 San Francisco—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" despite having a license to carry concealed wepons, a rare privilege granted in California. 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 a poison 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.

She was one of 16 senators to vote against the Vitter Amendment to prohibit the funding of the confiscation of legally owned guns during a disaster.

Feinstein has supported Hollywood and the content industry when it has come into conflict with technology and fair use. In letters to her constituents, she has supported the introduction of the Broadcast Flag. [7] In 2006 she cosponsored the "PERFORM Act" or the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006" to the Senate which would require satellite, cable and internet broadcasters to pay fair market value for the performance of digital music. Additionally, the bill would require the use of readily available and cost-effective technological means to prevent music theft. Over the Air Broadcasting would not be affected. [8] Feinstein's consistent backing of the content industry and attacks on fair use have earned her poor marks with the EFF and IPac.

2006 re-election campaign

Main article: California United States Senate election, 2006

Feinstein is running for a third full term in 2006. She will face Republican Richard Mountjoy, Libertarian Michael Metti, Green Todd Chretien, and Peace and Freedom Marsha Feinland in the general election. Feinstein had $5.7 million in cash on hand as of the end of 2005[9].

Ideological ratings

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Fa - Fe". Real Names of Famous Folk. Retrieved October 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Seymour "Sy" Brody. "Dianne Feinstein: United States Senator From California". Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America. Retrieved October 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Millionaires populate U.S. Senate". CNN.com. Retrieved June 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

References

Template:Incumbent U.S. Senator box
Preceded by Mayor of San Francisco
1978–1988 		Succeeded by
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