Anna Eshoo | |
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 14th district |
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office January 3, 1993 |
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Preceded by | Tom Campbell[1] |
Personal details | |
Born | December 13, 1942 New Britain, Connecticut |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | George Eshoo (divorced) |
Children | Karen Eshoo Paul Eshoo |
Residence | Atherton, California |
Alma mater | Cañada College |
Occupation | communications executive, political assistant |
Religion | Chaldean Catholic |
Anna Georges Eshoo (born December 13, 1942) is the U.S. Representative for California's 14th congressional district, serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which includes part of Silicon Valley, includes the cities of Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto. She is the only Member of Congress of Assyrian descent.
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Anna Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage.[2] Her father, Fred Georges, was a jeweler and watchmaker. She is a Chaldean Catholic and is the oldest of three children. She has a brother, Frederick Kenneth Georges, and a sister, Veronica May Georges.
She was married to attorney George Eshoo and is now divorced, with two children, Karen and Paul. She now resides in Atherton, California.
In 1988, in the middle of Eshoo's second term on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, Anna Eshoo ran for Congress in what was then the 12th District, but lost narrowly to Stanford law professor Tom Campbell. However, when Campbell made an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1992, Eshoo ran for his vacated Congressional seat, which had been renumbered the 14th as a result of redistricting. She won by 17 points, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district since its creation in 1953 (it was the 11th District from 1953 to 1983 and the 12th from 1983 to 1993). She has been reelected nine times, never facing serious opposition. Most recently, she defeated Dave Chapman on November 2, 2010, garnering nearly 70 percent of the vote.
In 2003, Eshoo was elected by her Democratic colleagues in the 108th Congress as an At-Large Democratic Whip, and she has served in that position to the present. She is currently the only Assyrian American member of Congress and one of two Armenian American members of Congress. The other Armenian-American in Congress is Jackie Speier, who represents the rest of San Mateo County.
On January 30, 2008, Rep. Eshoo formally endorsed Illinois Senator Barack Obama for President.[3]
Anna Eshoo's complete voting record can be viewed at Vote Smart
In 2005, Eshoo worked with Nancy Pelosi to develop the Democratic Innovation Agenda, which calls for America to achieve independence from Middle East oil over the next ten years. She has led efforts to raise fuel standards for automakers, and pursued reliance on alternative energy sources both in California and nationally. Legislation includes:
Click here [5] to download a copy of Eshoo's floor statement on H.R. 3321, the New Direction for Energy Independence Act.
Anna Eshoo is a strong supporter of the gay rights movement. In 1992 when a gay bashing mailer was directed at Supervisor Tom Nolan (the first openly gay supervisor in San Mateo and her opponent for her congressional seat) Anna Eshoo stood fast in defending him, his record and years of service. She opposed the Marriage Protection Amendment and the Marriage Protection Act. Her website says the bill is "discriminatory, singling out for the first time a minority to prevent their interests from being considered by the highest courts in the land."[6]
As one of just two Assyrian members of Congress, Eshoo has worked hard to protect indigenous Assyrian Christians in Iraq from continuing religious persecution and political exclusion. She authored an amendment to H.R. 2601, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, requesting that "special attention should be paid to the welfare of Chaldo-Assyrians and other indigenous Christians in Iraq."[7]
Rep. Eshoo has been a strong supporter of the Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. She also supports closer ties between Armenia and the U.S.
Rep. Eshoo has fought strongly against certain provisions of the Patriot Act, particularly Section 215 (Access to Business Records), which gives federal investigators the right to obtain any tangible business record without obtaining a subpoena.
Rep. Eshoo also introduced "Kevin's Law," which would have given the U.S. Department of Agriculture the power to close down plants that produce contaminated meat.
As an Assyrian and Armenian American, Rep. Eshoo is co-chair and co-founder of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy, a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated freedom of religion organization.
Rep. Eshoo has worked to create a legal "pathway to citizenship" for foreign workers of all kinds, from doctors and computer programmers to migrant farm workers. She has voted to increase the annual cap on H-1B visas to allow more temporary foreign professionals to work in the United States (especially those with Master's Degrees or higher).
In her state of California, where as much as 90% of the agricultural workforce is composed of illegal immigrants,[8] Rep. Eshoo cosponsored H.R. 371, the Agricultural Jobs Act, which would confer blue card status on illegal immigrants who had worked an agricultural job in the United States for 150 days or more. This bill never became law.
Other legislation includes:
In November 2005, Rep. Eshoo led the House Democratic Caucus in introducing the "Innovation Agenda." Representative Eshoo developed this comprehensive policy in conjunction with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and others after extensive consultation with Silicon Valley and tech leaders around the country, venture capitalists, and scholars.
She authored a bill authorizing electronic signatures and introduced controversial legislation to help alleviate the proliferation of unsolicited email, known as spam. The U.S. House of Representatives passed The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (S. 877), which authorizes a “Do Not Spam” list, regulates commercial email, and imposes fines on spammers. Eshoo authored the Consumer Internet Privacy Enhancement Act of 2001 (H.R. 237), created a program to provide discounts to schools and libraries for Internet access, and authored the Computer Donation Incentive Act.
Rep. Eshoo introduced HR 2428, the Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009.[9] The bill would require new federal road projects to include plastic conduits buried along the side of the roadway, and enough of them to "accommodate multiple broadband providers."[10] “According to industry experts, more than half of the cost of new broadband deployment is attributable to the expense of tearing up and repaving roads,” said Rep. Eshoo. “By putting the broadband conduit in place while the ground beneath the roadways is exposed, we will enable any authorized communications provider to come in later and install fiber-optic cable at far less cost.”[9] The bill is supported by Google.[11][12]
Together with Rep. Edward Markey Eshoo introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009,[13] which would make Net Neutrality the law.[14]
Rep. Eshoo currently serves as co-chair of the Congressional Internet Caucus, a bipartisan group of over 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet.[15]
Eshoo created student advisory boards in 1993 consisting of youth from her congressional district, who advise her on policies and make recommendations, and are located in Palo Alto, San Mateo and Santa Cruz. The students attend biweekly meetings and choose one topic to focus on each year. Past topics have included health care, the crisis in Darfur, medicine, voter reform, foreign affairs, and the media. Eshoo also hosts a congressional arts competition, which students can apply to win.
United States House of Representatives elections, 1988[17] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Republican | Tom Campbell | 136,384 | 51.7% | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo | 121,523 | 46.0% | |
Libertarian | Tom Grey | 6,023 | 2.3% | |
Totals | 263,930 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Republican hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 1992[18] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |||
Democratic | Anna Eshoo | 146,873 | 56.7% | |||
Republican | Tom Huening | 101,202 | 39.0% | |||
Libertarian | Chuck Olson | 7,220 | 2.8% | |||
Peace and Freedom | David Wald | 3,912 | 1.5% | |||
No party | Sims (write-in) | 12 | 0.01% | |||
No party | Maginnis (write-in) | 3 | 0.003% | |||
Totals | 259,232 | 100.0% | ||||
Voter turnout | % | |||||
Democratic gain from Republican |
United States House of Representatives elections, 1994[19] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 130,713 | 60.60% | |
Republican | Ben Brink | 78,475 | 39.40% | |
Totals | 199,188 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 1996[20] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 149,313 | 64.9% | |
Republican | Ben Brink | 71,573 | 31.1% | |
Peace and Freedom | Timothy Thompson | 3,653 | 1.6% | |
Libertarian | Joseph Dehn | 3,492 | 1.5% | |
Natural Law | Robert Wells | 2,144 | 0.9% | |
Totals | 230,175 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 1998[21] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 129,663 | 68.64% | |
Republican | Chris Haugen | 53,719 | 28.44% | |
Libertarian | Joseph W. Dehn III | 3,166 | 1.68% | |
Natural Law | Anna Currivan | 2,362 | 1.25% | |
Totals | 188,910 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2000[22] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 161,720 | 70.3% | |
Republican | Bill Quraishi | 59,338 | 25.8% | |
Libertarian | Joseph W. Dehn III | 4,715 | 2.0% | |
Natural Law | John Black | 4,489 | 1.9% | |
Totals | 230,262 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2002[23] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 117,055 | 68.2% | |
Republican | Joe Nixon | 48,346 | 28.2% | |
Libertarian | Andrew B. Carver | 6,277 | 3.6% | |
Totals | 171,678 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2004[24] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 182,712 | 69.8% | |
Republican | Chris Haugen | 69,564 | 26.6% | |
Libertarian | Brian Holtz | 9,588 | 3.6% | |
No party | Dennis Mitrzyk (write-in) | 24 | 0.01% | |
Totals | 262,088 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2006[25] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 141,153 | 71.1% | |
Republican | Rob Smith | 48,097 | 24.3% | |
Libertarian | Brian Holtz | 4,692 | 2.3% | |
Green | Carol Brouillet | 4,633 | 2.3% | |
Totals | 198,575 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2008[26] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 190,301 | 69.8% | |
Republican | Ronny Santana | 60,610 | 22.3% | |
Libertarian | Brian Holtz | 11,929 | 4.3% | |
Green | Carol Brouillet | 9,926 | 3.6% | |
Totals | 272,766 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives elections, 2010[27] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | |
Democratic | Anna Eshoo (incumbent) | 150,542 | 69.1% | |
Republican | Dave Chapman | 60,668 | 27.9% | |
Libertarian | Paul Lazaga | 6,685 | 3.0% | |
Totals | 217,895 | 100.0% | ||
Voter turnout | % | |||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives | ||
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Preceded by Tom Campbell |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 14th congressional district 1993–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
United States order of precedence | ||
Preceded by Jim Clyburn D-South Carolina |
United States Representatives by seniority 73rd |
Succeeded by Bob Filner D-California |