In 1969, Feinstein was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, the equivalent of a city council. She was its president for two and a half terms, during which time she ran for San Francisco mayor twice and lost. She was prepared to retire from politics when the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978 thrust her, the board president, into the mayor's office.

The next year, Feinstein was elected to the first of her two full terms as mayor. She was vetted and considered for a vice-presidential slot on Walter Mondale's ticket in 1984. She was term-limited in 1988 and began looking ahead to the 1990 governor's race. Feinstein came from far behind to win the Democratic primary, but lost to former San Diego mayor and Sen. Pete Wilson in the general election by 49 to 46 percent. (Feinstein reluctantly decided not to seek the same office again in 1998 and resisted suggestions to put herself on the ballot during the 2003 recall election).

U.S. Senate

Her next move was to run in a special election in 1992 for the Senate seat that Wilson had vacated to become governor. Feinstein easily defeated state comptroller (and later governor) Gray Davis in the Democratic primary by more than 20 points and went on to win the general election over state senator John Seymour (R) by 54 to 38 percent.

In 1994, Feinstein faced her only serious re-election challenge from wealthy first-term Congressman Michael Huffington (R) (ex-husband of now famous blogger Arianna).. After spending $30 million of his own money, Huffington pulled even with Feinstein in the polls. Both candidates came under fire during the campaign for allegedly employing illegal immigrants. Feinstein won 47 to 45 percent in what was, at the time, the most expensive congressional race ever.

Feinstein was re-elected to the Senate in 2000 and 2006.

Series of Firsts

Throughout her political career, Feinstein has often been the only woman in sight. As the first woman to serve as the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the mayor of San Francisco and a California senator, Feinstein is used to being a feminist vanguard. In 2006, she became the first woman to serve as chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. In January 2009, she gave up that chairmanship to head the Senate Intelligence Committee, again becoming the first woman to do so.

"The first anything in a situation is put through a whole host of litmus tests. And you have a feeling, once you get there, that your back is always against the wall and people are coming at you," Feinstein said during her unsuccessful bid for governor in 1990.

In the Senate, Feinstein chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and sits on the Committee on Rules and Administration, of which she was formerly the chairwoman; the Committee on the Judiciary, where she is the chairwoman of the subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security; and the Committee on Appropriations. She introduced President Barack Obama at his inauguration as the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. (Feinstein is also the co-chair of the Senate's Cancer Coalition, the Anti-Meth Caucus, the Congressional Dairy Caucus, and the Congressional Former Mayors Caucus.)

Feinstein married investment banker Richard C. Blum in 1980. Their joint assets were estimated to be worth $52.34 million in 2008, making Feinstein the eighth wealthiest member of Congress. She and her husband own condos in Tahoe City, California and Kauai, Hawaii.

Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1960 and her second husband died in 1978. She has one daughter from her first marriage.

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