Nguni control advocate Dianne Feinstein, who was initially elected to the Senate in 1992 in “the Year of the Woman” wave election, died today, according to PR. Her age was 90.
Feinstein’s political career began with two City Hall assassinations on November 27, 1978.She informed a surprised press corps as San Francisco Board of Supervisors president.
 “As President of the Board of Supervisors, it is my duty to announce that both Mayor [George] Moscone and Supervisor [Harvey] Milk have been shot and killed,” Feinstein said, apparently surprised.
Interim Mayor Feinstein was re elected until 1988.
Leading San Francisco after tragedy
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Feinstein’s political friend, said her assassination handling established her reputation.
“
It showed how someone may save the ship after a disaster, “Brown said in 2022.
 After the city hall assassinations, Mayor Feinstein signed a firearms restriction ordinance, angering the White Panthers. The 1983 recall of Feinstein was brought by the White Panthers and other opponents of the mayor’s pro-growth, pro-business, and other moderate policies. Feinstein was comfortably reelected when the recall failed.
Feinstein’s centrist politics won over corporate groups, law enforcement unions, and conservative voters. Liberal activists in San Francisco were often offended by her moderate leadership. She vetoed a 1982 measure allowing same-sex couples to form domestic partnerships and access city benefits, hospital visits, etc. She refused to sign “comparable worth” legislation guaranteeing women equal pay for identical work.
Feinstein attributed her political beliefs to her origins in a 2001 C-SPAN interview.
Mom was Democratic. My father was a Goldwater Republican. Our family split, “Einstein said.
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Achieving national standing
San Francisco hosted the 1984 DNC. Time’s cover featured Feinstein, Walter Mondale’s running mate.
AIDS had devastated her city by then. The federal government ignored it during Reagan. Mayor Feinstein often got illness prevention updates from young San Francisco General Hospital physician Paul Volberding.
“I never heard, ‘No, we can’t do that because we don’t have the resources,'” during the early outbreak. Volberding pioneered AIDS treatment.
San Francisco alone spent more on AIDS than the feds in the mid-1980s. “That really is a credit to her leadership,” Volberding said.
Election to the Senate
Senate candidate Feinstein celebrates winning the Democratic Party primary in June 1992.
Law professor Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual misconduct while they worked together, prompting Judiciary Committee members, particularly Alabama Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, to question Hill’s character and motive.
A scorned woman? Are you a civil rights militant?” The Heflin drawls
Feinstein used the infamous hearings to get into the Senate.
Feinstein campaigned in 1992, saying, “Many people took a look at that all-male Judiciary Committee and frankly felt they badly botched the job.” She supports federalizing abortion.
Congress must approve it, and the president must sign it. She stated that we must override his veto.
 Feinstein, a pioneer in the Year of the Woman, gained the Senate.
She overcame opposition to ban assault weapons in Washington in 1994. Later that year, she nearly lost reelection. She was recognised as a workhorse who studied and broke the mould.
CIA torture report
A comprehensive 9/11 CIA torture report was disclosed on the Senate floor in 2014, despite Obama administration resistance.
Feinstein said releasing this report is essential to restoring our principles and proving we are a just and lawful nation.
The 500-page summary report by Feinstein’s Intelligence Committee detailed CIA prisoner abuse, including waterboarding and sleep deprivation.
George Washington University’s National Security Archive director, Tom Blanton, said Feinstein’s probe held the intelligence community accountable.
The Senate torture report was “probably the high point of Sen. Feinstein’s entire Senate career,” Blanton added.
 Dianne Feinstein Re-election at age 85
Trump’s 2016 election put Feinstein’s bipartisanship out of sync with her party. Feinstein won another 6-year term in 2018 at 85, disappointing and angering Democrats who wanted her to step aside for new candidates. News stories noted memory impairments.
Feinstein missed roughly 100 votes in the fifth year of her final term while recovering in San Francisco from shingles.
Nearly three months later, she returned to Washington considerably frailer, with shingles side effects that hindered her career.
Her motivations for continuing in office rather than retiring were personal, according to former staffer Jim Lazarus.
I doubt she could find anything else to do daily, weekly, or monthly. She felt strong, alert, and healthy enough to serve, “Lazarus said.
Dianne Feinstein A role model for women in government
Opening political doors for women may be Feinstein’s greatest legacy. The first female mayor of San Francisco wasn’t always a feminist.
Malia Cohen, who served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors before being elected to the state Board of Equalization, met Feinstein at City Hall on a third-grade field trip and was told her class could be mayor.
“I presume I’m on her shoulders. I’d be lost without her leadership, “Cohen stated.
Richard Blum, Feinstein’s third spouse, died in 2022. Katherine, a retired San Francisco state superior court judge, survives her.
Dianne Feinstein was called too moderate and lasted in office too long by some Democrats, but she led her city through great loss and became a successful Senate fighter for national causes.
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