Anna Eshoo

Anna Eshoo
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 18th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2013
Preceded by Dennis Cardoza
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 14th district
In office
January 3, 1993 – January 3, 2013
Preceded by Tom Campbell[1]
Succeeded by Jackie Speier
Personal details
Born Anna Georges
(1942-12-13) December 13, 1942
New Britain, Connecticut
Political party Democratic
Spouse(s) George Eshoo (divorced)
Children Karen Eshoo
Paul Eshoo
Residence Atherton, California[2]
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 18th congressional district, serving in Congress since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which includes part of Silicon Valley, includes the cities of San Jose, Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto. She is the only Member of Congress of Assyrian descent. Both she and Jackie Speier have Armenian descent on their maternal side and are the only two members of Congress of Armenian descent.

Early life, education, and business career

Anna Eshoo was born in New Britain, Connecticut, of Assyrian and Armenian heritage.[3] 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 earned an Associate of Arts degree in English from Cañada College in 1975. She worked for the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) between 1963 and 1966 and for Arcata National Corporation between 1966 and 1970.

Early political career

She was Chair of the San Mateo Democratic Party between 1978 and 1982. She was also a member of the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s. She was Chief-of-Staff to Speaker pro tempore Leo McCarthy of the California State Assembly between 1981 and 1982. She was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1982 and served until 1992. She was president of the board in 1986.

U.S. House of Representatives

Diane Howard, Don Saye, and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (right)

Elections

1988

In the middle of Eshoo's second term on the San Mateo Board of Supervisors, she ran for Congress in California's 12th congressional district. She won the Democratic primary with a plurality of 43%,[4] but lost the general election to Republican Stanford law professor Tom Campbell, 51–46%.[5]

1992

Campbell gave up his congressional seat to make an unsuccessful bid for the United States Senate, and Eshoo entered the Democratic primary for the open seat, which had been renumbered as the 14th District. She won the seven-way primary with a plurality of 40%.[6] In the general election, she defeated Republican nominee Tom Huening, 57–39%.[7]

1994

She survived the Republican Revolution, winning re-election with 61% of the vote.[8]

1996-2006

During this period she never won re-election with less than 65% of the vote.

2008

She won re-election against Republican Ronny Santana 70–22%.[9]

2010

She won re-election against Republican Dave Chapman 69–28%.[10]

2012

After redistricting, Eshoo ran for and won re-election in California's 18th congressional district based in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.[11]

2014

After a bitter race that brought to the fore some dissatisfaction over party leadership, Eshoo lost a party vote for the Democrat who will serve as ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Nancy Pelosi had said Eshoo's elevation to the top Democratic spot on that committee would be important for the Democrats, allowing Eshoo "to tap into lucrative fundraising interests in Silicon Valley and elsewhere that the committee has jurisdiction."[12]

Tenure

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.

On January 30, 2008, Rep. Eshoo formally endorsed U.S. Senator Barack Obama for President.[13]

Energy

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.[14] Legislation includes:

Click here [15] to download a copy of Eshoo's floor statement on H.R. 3321, the New Direction for Energy Independence Act.

Human rights

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) 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."[16]

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."[17]

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 freedom of religion organization.

Immigration

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,[18] 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:

Technology

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.[19] 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."[20] "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."[19] The bill is supported by Google.[21][22]

Together with Rep. Edward Markey Eshoo introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009,[23] which would make Net Neutrality the law.[24]

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.[25]

Eshoo supported the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2013 (H.R. 3675; 113th Congress), a bill that would make a number of changes to procedures that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) follows in its rulemaking processes.[26] The FCC would have to act in a more transparent way as a result of this bill, forced to accept public input about regulations.[27] Eshoo expected Senate support for the bill, saying that they "shouldn't find it menacing" and arguing that the bill "is about the functioning of the FCC in the 21st century."[28]

Youth

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.

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Personal life

She was married to attorney George Eshoo and is now divorced, with two children, Karen and Paul. She now resides in Atherton, California.

Electoral history

United States House of Representatives elections, 1988[30]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Tom Campbell 136,384 51.7
Democratic Anna Eshoo 121,523 46.0
Libertarian Tom Grey 6,023 2.3
Total votes 263,930 100.0
Voter turnout %
Republican hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 1992[31]
Party Candidate Votes %
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%
Total votes 259,232 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic gain from Republican
United States House of Representatives elections, 1994[32]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Anna Eshoo (incumbent) 130,713 60.60
Republican Ben Brink 78,475 39.40
Total votes 199,188 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 1996[33]
Party Candidate Votes %
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
Total votes 230,175 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 1998[34]
Party Candidate Votes %
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
Total votes 188,910 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2000[35]
Party Candidate Votes %
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
Total votes 230,262 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2002[36]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Anna Eshoo (incumbent) 117,055 68.2
Republican Joe Nixon 48,346 28.2
Libertarian Andrew B. Carver 6,277 3.6
Total votes 171,678 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2004[37]
Party Candidate Votes %
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%
Total votes 262,088 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2006[38]
Party Candidate Votes %
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
Total votes 198,575 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2008[39]
Party Candidate Votes %
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
Total votes 272,766 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2010[40]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Anna Eshoo (incumbent) 150,542 69.1
Republican Dave Chapman 60,668 27.9
Libertarian Paul Lazaga 6,685 3.0
Total votes 217,895 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2012[41]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Anna Eshoo (incumbent) 212,831 70.5
Republican Dave Chapman 89,103 29.5
Total votes 301,934 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold
United States House of Representatives elections, 2014[42]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Anna Eshoo (incumbent) 133,060 67.8
Republican Richard B. Fox 63,326 32.2
Total votes 196,386 100.0
Voter turnout %
Democratic hold

Organizations

Awards and honors

References

  1. ↑ Prior to 1993, nearly all of Eshoo's district was the 12th district, represented by Tom Campbell
  2. ↑ "Six questions for Congresswoman Anna Eshoo". InMenlo.com. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Kreitman, K. (10/27/2006) "Anna Eshoo has come a long way in Congress," Daily Journal (San Mateo County, Calif.)
  4. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA District 12 - D Primary Race - Jun 07, 1988". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA District 12 Race - Nov 08, 1988". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  6. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA District 14 - D Primary Race - Jun 02, 1992". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA District 14 Race - Nov 03, 1992". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA District 14 Race - Nov 08, 1994". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  9. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA - District 14 Race - Nov 04, 2008". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "Our Campaigns - CA - District 14 Race - Nov 02, 2010". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "Anna Eshoo for Congress". Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Pelosi ally Anna Eshoo loses party vote for key committee post". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  13. ↑ Bay Area News Group (30 January 2008). "Anna Eshoo endorses Obama - Political Blotter - Politics in the Bay Area and beyond". ibabuzz.com. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Anna Eshoo's stance on energy
  15. ↑ http://eshoo.house.gov/images/documents/Energy/eshoo%20floor%20statement%20on%20energy%20package_8-4-07.doc
  16. ↑ Anna Eshoo's stance on civil rights
  17. ↑ Amendment 483 to Hr. 2601
  18. ↑ Study by the Department of Labor
  19. 1 2 Anna Eshoo. "Rep. Eshoo Introduces Broadband Conduit Legislation".
  20. ↑ Nate Anderson (May 20, 2009). "New bill wants fiber conduit built into every road project". arstechnica.
  21. ↑ Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel, Google (June 8, 2009). "Google submits initial comments supporting a National Broadband Plan".
  22. ↑ Richard Whitt, Google (June 8, 2009). "Submit your ideas for a National Broadband Plan".
  23. ↑ Anna Eshoo (n.d.). "Reps. Eshoo and Markey Introduce Bill to Preserve Free and Open Internet".
  24. ↑ Free Press (August 3, 2009). "Two Million for Internet Freedom".
  25. ↑ Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (January 11, 2011). "U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus: Membership in the 112th Congress".
  26. ↑ "H.R. 3675 – CBO". Congressional Budget Office. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  27. ↑ Kasperowicz, Pete (11 March 2014). "House votes for more transparency at the FCC". The Hill. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  28. ↑ Bachman, Katy (11 December 2013). "Bipartisan FCC Process Reform Bill Gains Momentum". Ad Week. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  29. ↑ "Congresswoman Anna Eshoo". Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.
  30. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1988," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  31. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 3, 1992," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  32. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1994," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  33. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 1996," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  34. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 3, 1998," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  35. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 2000," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  36. ↑ 2002 Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 2002," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  37. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 2004," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  38. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 2006," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  39. ↑ Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 4, 2008," (retrieved on August 8th, 2009).
  40. ↑ Secretary of State Debra Bowen "U.S. Congress District 14 - Districtwide Results" (retrieved on November 22nd, 2010).
  41. ↑ Office of the California Secretary of State (retrieved on January 22, 2014).
  42. ↑ Office of the California Secretary of State (retrieved on February 15, 2016).

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Anna Eshoo
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by
Tom Campbell		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 14th congressional district
1993–2013 		Succeeded by
Jackie Speier
Preceded by
Dennis Cardoza		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 18th congressional district
2013–Present 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by
Jim Clyburn
D-South Carolina 		United States Representatives by seniority
39th 		Succeeded by
Bob Goodlatte
R-Virginia
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