Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TalkAbout (talk | contribs) at 17:29, 10 December 2011 (→See also: Portal|San Francisco Bay Area). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jackie Speier
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 12th district
Incumbent
Assumed office April 8, 2008
Preceded by	Tom Lantos
Member of the California Senate from the 8th district
In office 1998–2006
Preceded by	Quentin L. Kopp
Succeeded by	Leland Yee
Member of the California State Assembly from the 19th district
In office 1986–1996
Preceded by	Lou Papan
Succeeded by	Lou Papan
San Mateo County Supervisor
In office 1980–1986
Personal details
Born	(1950-05-14) May 14, 1950 (age 74) San Francisco, California
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Barry Dennis
Children	Jackson, Stephanie
Residence	Hillsborough, California
Alma mater	University of California, Davis; University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Occupation	Attorney, political assistant
Website	Congresswoman Jackie Speier

Karen Lorraine Jacqueline "Jackie" Speier (/ˈspɪər/; born May 14, 1950) is the U.S. Representative for California's 12th congressional district, serving since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County (formerly part of the district represented by her political mentor, Leo Ryan) 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.

Family

Speier was born in 1950 in San Francisco and grew up in an apolitical, working-class family. Her mother, Nancy (née Kanchelian), was Armenian American, and her father, Fred Speier, was the son of a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. Speier took Jacqueline as her confirmation name after Jackie Kennedy. She is a graduate of Mercy High School in Burlingame, which is where her daughter attended as a freshman in the 2008–2009 school year. 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.

Speier's first husband, Dr. Steve Sierra, died in a car accident in 1994 at the age of 53. At the time, she was two months pregnant with their second child, a daughter named Stephanie. They also had a son, Jackson Kent, to whom Speier gave birth in 1988 while she was serving as a member of the California State Assembly, the first woman in that legislature to do so. Speier then supported her children as a widowed single mother before marrying Barry Dennis, an investment consultant, in 2001.

Congressional aide

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. 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. Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. 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 and waited 22 hours before help arrived. The murder of Congressman Ryan was the only assassination of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States. That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown.

Political career

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). 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.

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

California State Senate

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. 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. 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.

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.

2008 presidential campaign

Speier endorsed Hillary Clinton's bid for president.

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.

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 ended in January 2009. She won an outright majority, avoiding a runoff that would have been held on June 3, coinciding with the regular primary election. Speier easily won the Democratic primary on June 3. The 12th is so heavily Democratic that this virtually assured her of a full term. She was elected to a full term in November with 75 percent of the vote.

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.

Political views

Abortion

Speier supports legal abortion. When she took the National Political Awareness Test in 2002, she answered, “Abortions should always be legally available.” The organization NARAL Pro-Choice America rated Jackie Speier as 100% on interest group ratings because she supported the choice of abortion in her voting for legislation. Also, in 2008 the Planned Parenthood Organization gave Speier a 100% on her actions regarding abortion. In a speech on the House floor on February 17, 2011, Speier said that she herself had undergone an emergency D&E procedure when complications developed in a wanted pregnancy.

Gun control

Speier believes in a stricter view of gun control. According to her answers on the NPAT (National Political Awareness Test) she would like to require safety locks on all guns, and background checks on prospective buyers. As well as, ban certain guns except for use in hunting and strengthen state restrictions on buying and owning guns. To show that her legislation currently follows what she answered on the NPAT when the Gun Owners of America graded Jackie Speier they gave her an ‘F’ and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Jack Berman Advocacy Center gave her a 100%. Other organizations that gave Speier a low grade on loosening the restrictions on gun use include: the National Rifle Association, and Gun Owners of California.

Environment and energy

Speier is concerned for the protection of the environment and wants to preserve the health of this planet. She lists as evidence the decline of salmon on the West Coast as proof of global warming. Speier believes global warming poses a growing danger and negatively affects the environment. When she spoke to the House on the subject of global warming and the environment, she expressed a desire “to craft a bipartisan and commonsense energy plan that makes polluters pay, provides for middle class energy tax credits, and creates a new industry and lots of good, clean, green jobs.” Jackie Speier is working to improve energy legislation with the Clean Air Rebate Act of 2009, the Home Star Act and the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Congressional committee assignments

• Committee on Homeland Security
  • Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Transportation Security
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending
  • Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs

Caucuses

• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (Associate Member)

Electoral history

Books

• This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down, by Deborah Collins Stephens, Michealene Cristini Risley, Jackie Speier, and Jan Yanehiro, 2007, ISBN 978-1-57324-305-6

See also

• Armenian American Political Action Committee
• Armenian National Committee of America
• List of Armenian-Americans

References

1. Biographical Directory of Congress, Jackie Speier.
2. SFGATE: Voters send Jackie Speier to Washington
3. SPEIER, Nancy Kanchelian
4. Smith, Richard Harris (November 21, 2007). "The Miscasting Of Congressman Lantos". California Chronicle. Ultio LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
5. ^ Haddock, Vicki (November 16, 2003). "Jackie Speier– moving on, moving up: Survivor of Jonestown ambush plans run for lieutenant governor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
6. Staff (2007). "Alumni News". University of California Hastings College of the Law. Retrieved January 27, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. ^ Jackie Speier at National Names DataBase.
8. ^ Jackie Speier, Moving On, Moving Up, November 16, 2003, San Francisco Chronicle.
9. Jackie For Congress: Bio, biography page at 2008 campaign website.
10. Excerpt from: REPORT OF A STAFF INVESTIGATIVE GROUP TO THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 15, 1979
11. ^ Staff (October 2006). "Senator Jackie Speier one of honored guests at banquet". Press Release. Armenian National Committee of America Western Region. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
12. Jeff Brazil, Jonestown's Horror Fades but Mystery Remain, Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1999
13. HR 56 (1996) - California State Assembly
14. California Secreatry of State, Vote2002, State Senate District 8, accessed February 15, 2008, at web.archive.org
15. Yates, Dana. "Yee looking to make mark". The Daily Journal. San Mateo County's homepage. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
16. Hillary Clinton For President at National Names DataBase.
17. Kapochunas, Rachel (January 2, 2008). "California Dems Expected to Vie for Lantos Seat". CQ Politics. Congressional Quarterly Inc. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
18. John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 2008, "April 8 primary set to pick Lantos' successor", accessed February 15, 2008
19. 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. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
20. ^ VoteSmart.org
21. ^ Link thehill.com
22. CBS News (02-18-2011). "Rep. Speier tells House she had abortion". Retrieved 02-18-2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
23. Speier, Jackie (February 20, 2011), ""Abortion" Fuels Intolerant Thinking", The Huffington Post, retrieved July 28, 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
24. VoteSmart.org
25. Link VoteSmart.org
26. Link VoteSmart.org
27. Link VoteSmart.org
28. Our Campaigns "California District 11 - Special Election Race - March 6, 1979," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
29. Our Campaigns "California State Assembly 19 Race - November 4, 1986," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
30. Our Campaigns "California State Assembly 19 Race - November 8, 1988," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
31. Our Campaigns "California State Assembly 19 Race - November 6, 1990," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
32. Our Campaigns "California State Assembly 19 Race - November 3, 1992," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
33. Our Campaigns "California State Assembly 19 Race - November 8, 1994," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
34. Our Campaigns "California State Senate 8 Race - November 3, 1998," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
35. Office of the California Secretary of State "State Senator," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
36. Office of the California Secretary of State "Lieutenant Governor, by county," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
37. Office of the California Secretary of State "Special Election Results United States House of Representatives, District 12 Special Primary Election, April 8, 2008," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
38. Office of the California Secretary of State "United States Representative," (retrieved on August 4, 2009).
39. Office of the California Secretary of State "United States Representative," (retrieved on February 21, 2011).

External links

• Jackie Speier official U.S. House site
• Jackie Speier for Congress official campaign site
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart

Speeches

• Jackie Speier and Deborah Stephens Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders seminar mp3.

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

• Commencement Speaker, San Francisco State University, 2006
• Senator Jackie Speier one of honored guests at banquet, Armenian National Committee of America Western Region, October 2006.

Video

• This Is Not The Life I Ordered, preview of book, promotional video with Jackie Speier

v t e Leo J. Ryan
U.S. Representative for California's 11th congressional district (1973–1978)
Tributes	Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park Leo J. Ryan Federal Building
Books	USA/From Where We Stand Understanding California Government and Politics
Legislation	Hughes–Ryan Amendment
Awards	Congressional Gold Medal (List of recipients)
People	Patricia Ryan Jackie Speier
Wikisource Wikimedia Commons Wikquote

Template:Persondata

• Ill-formatted IPAc-en transclusions
• 1950 births
• American Roman Catholics
• American people of Armenian descent
• American people of German-Jewish descent
• American people of Jewish descent
• American shooting survivors
• California Democrats
• California State Senators
• Female members of the United States House of Representatives
• Leo Ryan
• Living people
• Members of the California State Assembly
• Members of the United States House of Representatives from California
• Peoples Temple
• University of California, Davis alumni
• University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni
• Women state legislators in California
• Youth rights individuals
• United States congressional aides