Jackie Speier:
Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier, known as Jackie Speier (born May 14, 1950), is the Democratic Representative for California's 12th congressional district.[1][2][3] The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.
She is also a former member of the California State Senate who represented parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties. On April 8, 2008, she won the special election for the vacated United States House of Representatives seat of late Congressman Tom Lantos.[2]
[edit] Family
Speier was born in 1950 in San Francisco and grew up in an apolitical, working-class family. She took Jacqueline as her confirmation name after Jackie Kennedy.[4] She is a graduate of Mercy High School in Burlingame. She earned a B.A. from the University of California, Davis, and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in 1976.[5] Speier is of Armenian descent, and has a Jewish grandfather who fled Nazi Germany.[6]
Speier's first husband, Dr. Steve Sierra,[7] died in a car accident in 1994 at the age of 53.[8] At the time, she was two months pregnant with their second child, a daughter named Stephanie.[8] They also had a son, Jackson Kent, to whom Speier gave birth in 1988[7] while she was serving as a state representative in the California State Assembly, the first woman in that legislature to do so.[8] Speier then supported her children as a widowed single mother before marrying Barry Dennis, an investment consultant, in 2001.[7][9]
[edit] Congressional aide
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Speier served as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of the November 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by the Reverend Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown with Jones in 1977 and 1978.[4] Speier was one of only two members of the mission who were concerned enough about potential violence to make out a will before traveling to Jonestown.[10] Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died. While attempting to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times.[11] She had to wait 22 hours for help to arrive, but she survived.[11] The murder of Congresman Ryan was the only assassination of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States. [12]
That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown. Among historic mass suicides, it was the largest such event in over 1,900 years.
[edit] Political career
Speier as a California state senator
[edit] San Mateo County
Speier's political career began with an unsuccessful run to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Congressman Ryan (the seat she holds now).[4] She lost the Democratic primary to another former Ryan staffer, G.W. "Joe" Holsinger, who went on to lose to the Republican candidate, San Mateo County Supervisor Bill Royer.
Speier won her first election in 1980, when she ran for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and defeated a 20-year incumbent. At the time, she was the youngest person ever elected to the board. She was reelected in 1984, and was later selected as chairwoman.[11].
[edit] California State Assembly
In 1986, midway through her second term on the Board of Supervisors, she ran for the California State Assembly from a district in northern San Mateo County. She won by a few hundred votes. She was reelected five more times, the last as the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties[13]
[edit] California State Senate
Caltrain Locomotive Named after Jackie Speier
California state term limits forced Speier to give up her Assembly seat in 1996, but in 1998 she was elected to the California State Senate. In 2002, she was elected to a second term with 78.2% of the vote.[14] As a state senator, Speier was instrumental in securing $127 million funding for major service improvements to Caltrain, for which the commuter rail agency named a new locomotive (no. 925) for her. Speier also focused on representing consumer rights.[15] Senator Speier was termed out of the California State Senate in 2006. Speier served as assistant president pro tempore of the California State Senate during her last term.
[edit] Candidate for Lieutenant governor of California
In 2006, Speier ran in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant governor of California against insurance commissioner John Garamendi and state senator Liz Figueroa. At the June 6, 2006 elections, Speier was defeated by Garamendi in a close race. Garamendi received 42.9%, Speier received 39.3%, and Figueroa received the remaining 17.8% of the vote.
[edit] Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
On January 13, 2008, Speier announced she was running for the House seat being vacated by 14-term representative Tom Lantos, who announced on January 2, 2008 that he was not seeking re-election. Speier had spent much of 2007 building support to challenge Lantos in the Democratic primary.[16]
On January 17, 2008 Lantos endorsed Speier as his successor. She also picked up endorsements from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, Congressman Mike Thompson and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Lantos died February 11, 2008. Speier won a special primary election on April 8, 2008 to fill the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2009. She won with the majority of the votes against four other candidates so it was not necessary to hold a special election runoff on June 3, 2008.[17] The regular state primary for that seat was on June 3, and Speier won the Democratic primary. Given the district's overwhelming Democratic tilt, this primary victory was tantamount to election to a full term,[18] and she was elected to a full term in the general election on November 4, 2008.
On July 11, 2008 Speier introduced her first bill, The Gasoline Savings and Speed Limit Reduction Act, which would set a national speed limit of 60 mph in urban areas and 65 mph on less-populated stretches of highway.
[edit] 2008 presidential campaign
Speier endorsed Hillary Clinton's bid for president,[19] along with numerous other public figures such as Maya Lin, Nita Lowey, Floyd Abrams, and Gloria Steinem.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ CURRENT HOUSE FLOOR PROCEEDINGS - LEGISLATIVE DAY OF APRIL 10, 2008 - 110TH CONGRESS - SECOND SESSION
- ^ a b SFGATE: Voters send Jackie Speier to Washington
- ^ California Secretary of State: Special Primary Election - April 8, 2008
- ^ a b c Haddock, Vicki (November 16, 2003), "Jackie Speier – moving on, moving up: Survivor of Jonestown ambush plans run for lieutenant governor", San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/16/INGEM3070L1.DTL&type=printable, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ Staff (April 2007). "Alumni News". University of California Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved on 2008-01-27.
- ^ Smith, Richard Harris (November 21, 2007), "The Miscasting Of Congressman Lantos", California Chronicle (Ultio LLC.), http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=43481, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ a b c d Jackie Speier at National Names DataBase.
- ^ a b c Jackie Speier, Moving On, Moving Up, November 16, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Jackie For Congress: Bio, biography page at 2008 campaign website.
- ^ Excerpt from: REPORT OF A STAFF INVESTIGATIVE GROUP TO THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 15, 1979
- ^ a b c Staff (October 2006), "Senator Jackie Speier one of honored guests at banquet", Press Release (Armenian National Committee of America Western Region), http://www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=644, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ Jeff Brazil, Jonestown's Horror Fades but Mystery Remain, Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1999
- ^ HR 56 (1996) - California State Assembly
- ^ California Secreatry of State, Vote2002, State Senate District 8, accessed February 15, 2008 at web.archive.org
- ^ Yates, Dana, "Yee looking to make mark", The Daily Journal (San Mateo County's homepage), http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=67838, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ Kapochunas, Rachel (January 2, 2008), "California Dems Expected to Vie for Lantos Seat", CQ Politics (Congressional Quarterly Inc.), http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002651163, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2008, "April 8 primary set to pick Lantos' successor", accessed February 15, 2008
- ^ Bishop, Shaun (January 17, 2008), "Lantos endorses Speier as 'our best candidate': 14-term congressman's support comes just days after former state senator announced candidacy", Inside Bay Area (ANG Newspapers), http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_7996173, retrieved on 27 January 2008
- ^ Hillary Clinton For President at National Names DataBase.
[edit] External links
- Election Websites
- Speeches
- Media, press
- Speier seeks national speed limit to save gas, July 11, 2008, San Francisco Chronicle
- Jackie Speier – moving on, moving up: Survivor of Jonestown ambush plans run for lieutenant governor, November 16, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle
- Reforming California's Prisons: An Interview With Jackie Speier, Mother Jones (magazine), July 7, 2005
- Honors
- Video
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