SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN

Dianne Feinstein's career has been a series of firsts. In addition to becoming the first woman to represent California in the United States Senate, she was among the first women to be considered for selection as Vice President in 1984, and in 1990 she became the Democratic candidate for Governor of California, the first woman to be nominated for that position by a major party in California.

Since her election to the Senate in 1992, Dianne Feinstein has written legislation that initially was given little chance of passage but won approval in both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton. Such legislation included a ban on the future manufacture, sale and possession of semi-automatic military combat weapons and the California Desert Protection Act. The Act incorporates more than three million acres of rolling hills and dunes, extinct volcanoes and pristine mountain ranges into two national parks -- Joshua Tree and Death Valley -- and one national preserve -- the East Mojave. Another three million acres is preserved as wilderness.

Re-elected in 1994 to her first full six-year term (her first filled the unexpired term left by the resignation of then-Senator Pete Wilson when he became California's Governor), Senator Feinstein serves on three Senate Committees: the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over crime and immigration legislation and the confirmation of federal judges; the Foreign Relations Committee, which oversees the nation's foreign policy; and the Rules and Administration Committee, which regulates Senate procedures. Senator Feinstein is the ranking minority member of the Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee.

In 1969, Dianne Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with more votes than any other candidate, thereby making her the first woman ever to serve as President of the city's legislative body. She was re-elected for two additional terms, serving three terms as President of the Board.

In November of 1978, in the aftermath of the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Board colleague Harvey Milk, Dianne Feinstein became mayor of San Francisco, where she served for an additional two terms.

During her nine years as mayor, Dianne Feinstein cut the City's crime rate 27 percent and balanced nine budgets in a row. In 1987, City and State magazine named Dianne Feinstein the nation's "most effective mayor."

Additional information on Senator Feinstein can be found on her home page .