Speier to Congress

Former state senator Jackie Speier succeeded in her bid to represent the 12th Congressional District, fulfilling a goal she first set for herself 29 years ago.

Speier first ran for the seat as a young legislative legal council who survived gunfire in Guyana, which killed the U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan. She lost the campaign to fill her assassinated boss’s seat in 1979, but won last night with 79.9 percent of the vote in San Mateo County. The 12th Congressional District represents most of San Mateo County and a southern portion of San Francisco. Tom Lantos held the seat for27 years and was expected to defend the seat against Speier in November, but died Feb. 11 of esophageal cancer.

"Often times there are not many second chances and I feel grateful for this opportunity,” Speier told a crowd of supporters at the Machinists Hall in Burlingame.

The 57-year-old Speier will board a plane tomorrow for Washington, D.C. where she will immediately begin working.

She told supporters that she will fight for issues citizens have discussed with her over the course of her campaign. Those issues include putting home buyers needs before those of "Wall Street speculators,” quality health care, adequate college financing, an improved Environmental Protection Agency and the end to the war in Iraq.

Republican Candidate Greg Conlon received 9.6 percent of the vote, Republican Mike Maloney received 5.1 percent, Democrat Michelle McMurry received 3.7 percent and Green Party candidate Barry Hermanson received 1.7 percent, according to the San Mateo County Elections Office.

Speier began her political career as a staff member for U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan in the 1970s. She went with Ryan to Jonestown, Guyana to investigate Jim Jones and the People’s Temple cult in 1978. During that trip, Ryan was assassinated and Speier was shot and left for dead on a tarmac in Guyana. She survived and her career continued.

She ran an unsuccessful campaign to fill Ryan’s seat after his assassination. She was later elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in 1980 at the age of 30. She was elected to the state Assembly in 1986 and served until termed out. During that time, Speier’s husband Steven Sierra was killed in a car accident involving an uninsured driver. Speier was pregnant with her second child at the time.

Speier was elected to the state Senate in 1998. She made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 2006.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.