Early life

Feinstein was born Dianne Emiel Goldman in San Francisco, to Betty (née Rosenburg), a former model, and Leon Goldman, a surgeon. Feinstein's paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland, while her maternal grandparents, the Rosenburg family, from Saint Petersburg Russia, were of German-Jewish ancestry, but were of the Russian Orthodox faith as was required for many Jews to reside in Saint Petersburg.

Personal life

Feinstein graduated from Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco in 1951 and from Stanford University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.

In 1956, she married Jack Berman (d. 2002), a colleague in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Feinstein and Berman divorced three years later. Their daughter, Katherine Feinstein Mariano (b. 1957), has been the presiding judge of the San Francisco Superior Court for twelve years, through 2012.

In 1962, shortly after beginning her career in politics, Feinstein married her second husband neurosurgeon Bertram Feinstein who died of colon cancer in 1978.

In 1980, Feinstein married Richard C. Blum, an investment banker. In 2003, Feinstein was ranked the fifth-wealthiest senator, with an estimated net worth of US$26 million. By 2005 her net worth had increased to between US$43 million and US$99 million. Her 347-page financial-disclosure statement - characterized by the San Francisco Chronicle as "nearly the size of a phone book" - draws clear lines between her assets and those of her husband, with many of her assets in blind trusts.

Early political career

In 1961, Feinstein worked to end housing discrimination in San Francisco. Prior to elected service, she was appointed by then-California Governor Pat Brown to serve as a member of the California Women's Parole Board. Feinstein also served as a fellow at the Coro Foundation in San Francisco.

President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors

In 1969, Feinstein was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She remained on the Board for nine years.

During her tenure on the Board of Supervisors, 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.

Because of her position, Feinstein became a target of the New World Liberation Front, which placed a bomb on her window sill that failed to explode, and which later shot out the windows of a beach house she owned.

She was elected president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1978 with initial opposition from Quentin Kopp.

On November 27, 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 was close by in City Hall at the time of the shootings, and discovered Milk's body after hearing the gunshots and going to investigate. Later that day at a press conference originally organized by Moscone to announce White's successor, 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."

Feinstein appears in archival footage and is credited in the Academy Award-winning documentary film The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). She appears again briefly in archival footage, announcing the death of Moscone and Milk in the 2008 film Milk. Feinstein and her position as President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors are also alluded to several times in the movie, and a portrayal of her character has a few off-screen lines.

As president of the Board of Supervisors upon the death of Mayor Moscone, Feinstein succeeded to the mayoralty on December 4, 1978.

Mayor of San Francisco

Main article: Mayoralty of Dianne Feinstein

Feinstein served out the remainder of Moscone's term. She made no staffing changes to his team until she was elected in her own right in 1979. She was re-elected in 1983 and served a full second term.

One of the first challenges to face Feinstein as mayor was the state of the San Francisco cable car system. In late 1979, the system had to be shut down for emergency repairs, and an engineering evaluation concluded that it needed comprehensive rebuilding at a cost of $60 million. Feinstein took charge of the effort, and helped win federal funding for the bulk of the rebuilding job. The system closed for rebuilding in 1982 and reopened in 1984 in time for the Democratic National Convention that was held in the city that year. Feinstein also oversaw planning policies to increase the number of high rise buildings in San Francisco.

Perhaps because of her statewide ambitions, Feinstein was seen as a relatively moderate Democrat in one of the country's most liberal cities. As a supervisor, she was considered part of the centrist bloc that included Dan White and was generally opposed to Moscone. As mayor, Feinstein angered the city's large gay community by refusing to march in a gay rights parade and by vetoing domestic partner legislation in 1982. In the 1980 presidential election, while a majority of Bay Area Democrats continued to support Senator Ted Kennedy's primary challenge to President Jimmy Carter even after it was clear Kennedy could not win, Feinstein was a strong supporter of the Carter-Mondale ticket. She was given a high profile speaking role on the opening night of the August Democratic National Convention, urging delegates to reject the Kennedy delegates' proposal to "open" the convention, thereby allowing delegates to ignore their states' popular vote, a proposal that was soundly defeated.

In the run up to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, there was considerable media and public speculation that Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale might pick Feinstein as his running mate. However, he chose Geraldine Ferraro instead. Also in 1984, Feinstein 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, at a press conference, Feinstein revealed details about the hunt for serial killer Richard Ramírez, and in so doing angered detectives by giving away details of his crimes.

In 1987, City and State magazine named Feinstein the nation's "Most Effective Mayor." Feinstein served on the Trilateral Commission during the 1980s while mayor of San Francisco.

Gubernatorial election

In 1990, Feinstein made an unsuccessful bid for Governor of California. Although she won the Democratic Party's nomination for the office, she then lost in the general election 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.

U.S. Senate career

Elections

See also: United States Senate special election in California, 1992 and United States Senate election in California, 2012

On November 3, 1992, Feinstein won a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated a year earlier when Senator Pete Wilson resigned to become governor. The election was held at the same time as the general election for U.S. President and other offices. Barbara Boxer was elected at the same time for the Senate seat to be vacated by Alan Cranston. Because Feinstein was elected to an unexpired term, she became a senator as soon as the election was certified in November while Boxer would not take office until the expiration of Cranston's term in January; thus Feinstein became California's senior senator, even though she was elected at the same time as Boxer and Boxer had previous congressional service. Feinstein was re-elected in 1994, 2000, 2006, and 2012. In 2012, Feinstein claimed the record for the most popular votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, having received 7.75 million votes. The record was previously held by her California colleague Barbara Boxer, who received 6.96 million votes in her 2004 re-election.

Approval ratings

Source	Date	Approve	Disapprove	Undecided
Survey USA	January 17, 2011	43%	48%	10%
Public Policy Polling at the Wayback Machine (archived May 15, 2011)	February 2, 2011	50%	39%	11%
The Field Poll	February 2, 2011	48%	33%	19%
The Field Poll	June 21, 2011	46%	31%	23%
The Field Poll	September 16, 2011	41%	39%	20%
Public Policy Polling	November 16, 2011	51%	38%	11%

Committees

• Committee on Appropriations
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Defense
  • Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  • Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
  • Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Refugees
  • Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law
• Committee on Rules and Administration
• Select Committee on Intelligence (Vice Chair)

Political positions and votes

Main article: Political positions of Dianne Feinstein

Feinstein voted for the extension of the PATRIOT ACT and the FISA provisions.

Feinstein was criticized in 2009 when she introduced a bill directing $25 billion to the FDIC the day after the agency awarded her husband's company a contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Feinstein and her husband have been tied to questionable dealings between the world's largest commercial real estate firm and the U.S. Postal Service. Feinstein has also been accused of abusing her position to award her husband’s companies billions of dollars in military contracts.

Feinstein cosponsored (along with Tom Coburn, an Oklahoman Republican) an amendment through the Senate to the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011 that eliminated the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. The Senate passed the amendment on June 16, 2011. Introduced in 2004, the subsidy provided a 45-cent-per-gallon credit on pure ethanol and a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. These subsidies had resulted in an annual expenditure of $6 billion.

After President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court in March 2016, Feinstein met with Garland on April 6 and subsequently called on Republicans to do "this institution the credit of sitting down, and meeting with him".

Mass surveillance and encryption

On May 12, 2011, Feinstein cosponsored PIPA. In January 2012, Feinstein met with representatives of technology companies, including Google and Facebook. According to a spokesperson, Feinstein "is doing all she can to ensure that the bill is balanced and protects the intellectual property concerns of the content community without unfairly burdening legitimate businesses such as Internet search engines."

After the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures involving the National Security Agency (NSA), Feinstein took measures to continue the collection programs. Foreign Policy wrote that she had a "reputation as a staunch defender of NSA practices and the White House's refusal to stand by collection activities targeting foreign leaders." In October 2013 she criticized the NSA for monitoring telephone calls of foreign leaders friendly to the US. In November 2013 she promoted the Fisa Improvements Act bill which included a "backdoor search provision" that allows intelligence agencies to continue certain warrantless searches as long as they are logged and "available for review" to various agencies.

In June 2013 Feinstein labeled Edward Snowden a traitor after his leaks went public. In October of that year she stated that she stood by those comments.

While praising the NSA, Feinstein had accused the CIA of snooping and removing files through Congress members computers' stating, "The CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it. Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee's computer." She claimed the "CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied in the United States Constitution."

After the 2016 FBI-Apple encryption dispute, Feinstein, along with Richard Burr, sponsored a bill that would be likely to criminalise all forms of strong encryption.

Assault weapons ban

Feinstein introduced the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which became law in 1994 and expired in 2004. In January 2013, about one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Feinstein, along with Representative Carolyn McCarthy from New York, proposed a bill that would "ban the sale, transfer, manufacturing or importation of 150 specific firearms including semiautomatic rifles or pistols that can be used with a detachable or fixed ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and have specific military-style features, including pistol grips, grenade launchers or rocket launchers." The bill would have exempted 900 models of guns used for sport and hunting. Feinstein commented on the bill, saying, "The common thread in each of these shootings is the gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition magazines. Military assault weapons only have one purpose and in my opinion, it's for the military." The bill failed on a Senate vote of 60 to 40.

Medical marijuana

Feinstein voted in support of legislation to override a Department of Veterans Affairs' prohibition on allowing doctors to recommend cannabis to veterans in states that sanction its use as a medicine; the legislation was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 21, 2015. However, she was the only Democrat who joined a minority of Republicans in voting against a measure designed to prevent federal interference with states' medical marijuana laws; that legislation passed with a 21-9 vote on June 18, 2015.

Presidential politics

As a superdelegate, Feinstein had declared that she would support Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, once Barack Obama became the presumptive nominee for the party, she fully backed his candidacy. Days after Obama amassed enough delegates to win the Democratic Party nomination, Feinstein lent her Washington, D.C., home to both Clinton and Obama to have a private one-on-one meeting. Feinstein did not attend the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver because she had fallen and broken her ankle earlier in the month.

She chaired the United States Congress Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and acted as mistress of ceremonies, introducing each participant at the 2009 presidential inauguration.

Heading into the 2016 Presidential Election, Senator Feinstein was one of sixteen Democratic female senators to sign a letter, on October 20, 2013, endorsing Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee.

Torture

Speaking on the Senate floor on December 9, 2014, Feinstein called the government's detention and interrogation program a “stain on our values and on our history,” following the release of 600 pages declassified out of a 6000-page report about CIA methods.

Encryption

In April 2016, following the FBI-Apple encryption dispute in the same year, a discussion draft of a bill sponsored by Burr and Senator Dianne Feinstein was leaked. The bill would require technology companies to design their encryption so that they can provide law enforcement with user data in an "intelligible format" when required to do so by court order.

Awards and honors

Feinstein was presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award for public service by the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution on November 3, 2001, in Los Angeles.

In 2002 Feinstein won the American Medical Association's Nathan Davis Award for "the Betterment of the Public Health."

In 2015 she was named as one of The Forward 50.

Offices held

Public offices
Office	Type	Location	Elected	Term began	Term ended
Mayor	Executive	San Francisco	N/A	December 4, 1978	January 8, 1980
Mayor	Executive	San Francisco	1979	January 8, 1980	January 8, 1984
Mayor	Executive	San Francisco	1983	January 8, 1984	January 8, 1988
Senator	Legislature	Washington, D.C.	1992	November 4, 1992	January 3, 1995
Senator	Legislature	Washington, D.C.	1994	January 3, 1995	January 3, 2001
Senator	Legislature	Washington, D.C.	2000	January 3, 2001	January 3, 2007
Senator	Legislature	Washington, D.C.	2006	January 3, 2007	January 3, 2013
Senator	Legislature	Washington, D.C.	2012	January 3, 2013	Ongoing

United States Senate service
Dates	Congress	Chamber	Majority	President	Committees	Class
1993-1995	103rd	U.S. Senate	Democratic	Bill Clinton	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules	1
1995-1997	104th	U.S. Senate	Republican	Bill Clinton	Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Rules	1
1997-1999	105th	U.S. Senate	Republican	Bill Clinton	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules	1
1999-2001	106th	U.S. Senate	Republican	Bill Clinton	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules	1
2001-2003	107th	U.S. Senate	Democratic	George W. Bush	Appropriations, Judiciary, Energy, Rules, Intelligence	1
2003-2005	108th	U.S. Senate	Republican	George W. Bush	Appropriations, Judiciary, Energy, Rules, Intelligence	1
2005-2007	109th	U.S. Senate	Republican	George W. Bush	Appropriations, Judiciary, Energy, Rules, Intelligence	1
2007-2009	110th	U.S. Senate	Democratic	George W. Bush	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules (chair), Intelligence	1
2009-2011	111th	U.S. Senate	Democratic	Barack Obama	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules, Intelligence (chair)	1
2011-2013	112th	U.S. Senate	Democratic	Barack Obama	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules, Intelligence (chair)	1
2013-2015	113th	U.S. Senate	Democratic	Barack Obama	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules, Intelligence (chair)	1
2015-current	114th	U.S. Senate	Republican	Barack Obama	Appropriations, Judiciary, Rules, Intelligence (vice-chair)	1

Electoral history

California gubernatorial election, 1990
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Pete Wilson	3,791,904	49.2
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein	3,525,197	45.8
	Libertarian	Dennis Thompson	145,628	1.9
	American Independent	Jerome McCready	139,661	1.8
	Peace and Freedom	Maria Elizabeth Munoz	96,842	1.3
Total votes			7,699,232
Majority			266,707	3.4
Turnout
	Republican hold		Swing

United States Senate special election in California, 1992
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein	5,853,651	54.3
	Republican	John F. Seymour (incumbent)	4,093,501	38.0
	Peace and Freedom	Gerald Horne	305,697	2.8
	American Independent	Paul Meeuwenberg	281,973	2.6
	Libertarian	Richard Benjamin Boddie	247,799	2.3
Total votes			10,782,621
Majority			1,760,050	16.3
Turnout
	Democratic gain from Republican		Swing

United States Senate election in California, 1994
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein (incumbent)	3,979,152	46.7	−7.6
	Republican	Michael Huffington	3,817,025	44.8	+6.8
	Peace and Freedom	Elizabeth Cervantes Barron	255,301	3.0	+0.2
	Libertarian	Richard Benjamin Boddie	179,100	2.1	−0.6
	American Independent	Paul Meeuwenberg	142,771	1.7	−0.9
	Green	Barbara Blong	140,567	1.7	+1.7
Total votes			8,513,916
Majority			162,127	1.9	−14.4
Turnout
	Democratic hold		Swing	−14.4

United States Senate election in California, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein (incumbent)	5,932,522	55.8	+9.1
	Republican	Tom Campbell	3,886,853	36.6	−8.2
	Green	Medea Susan Benjamin	326,828	3.1	+1.4
	Libertarian	Gail Lightfoot	187,718	1.8	−0.3
	American Independent	Dianne Beall Templin	134,598	1.3	−0.4
	Reform	Jose Luis Olivares Camahort	96,552	0.9	+0.9
	Natural Law	Brian M. Rees	58,537	0.5	+0.5
Total votes			10,623,608
Majority			2,045,669	19.2	+17.3
Turnout
	Democratic hold		Swing	+17.3

United States Senate election in California, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein (incumbent)	5,076,289	59.4	+3.6
	Republican	Dick Mountjoy	2,990,822	35.0	−1.6
	Green	Todd Chretien	147,074	1.7	−1.4
	Libertarian	Michael S. Metti	133,851	1.6	−0.2
	Peace and Freedom	Marsha Feinland	117,764	1.4	+1.4
	American Independent	Don J. Grundmann	75,350	0.9	−0.4
Total votes			8,541,150
Majority			2,085,467	24.4	+5.2
Turnout
	Democratic hold		Swing	+5.2

United States Senate election in California, 2012
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Dianne Feinstein (incumbent)	7,864,624	62.5	+3.1
	Republican	Elizabeth Emken	4,713,887	37.5	+2.5
Majority			3,150,737	25	+.6
Turnout
	Democratic hold		Swing	+.6

Charities

Dianne Feinstein supports the following charitable cause: Animals.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]