Jane Harman (D-Calif.)

U.S. Representative (2001-2011)

(Harman Facebook page)

Why She Matters

Jane Harman resigned from Congress in February 2011 to take the position of chief executive of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was succeeded in a special election in July 2011 by then-Los Angeles councilwoman Janice Hahn.

Since she first ran for Congress in 1992, Harman has always been proud of her individual brand of politics. She's progressive on social and women's issues while being a fiscal conservative and a supporter of a strong national defense.

While her moderate political stance has secured some close elections, it also has turned off some in the national Democratic Party leadership. In 2006, Harman was in line to take the chairmanship of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, but newly-minted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with whom Harman has frosty relations, denied her the opportunity. Despite that setback, Harman maintained her reputation as an expert on intelligence issues, once saying: "I live and breathe security 24-7."

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Corrections?

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Janice Hahn (D-Calif.)

U.S. Representative (since 2011)

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Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio)

U.S. Representative (since January 2003)

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Daniel Benjamin

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Sue Myrick (R-N.C.)

U.S. Representative (since January 1995)

At a Glance

Career History: Regent's Professor, UCLA (1999-2000); U.S. Representative (1993-1998); special counsel, Defense Department (1979); Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, White House (1977-1978)
Birthday: June 28, 1945
Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.
Alma Mater: Smith College, BA, 1966; Harvard, JD, 1969
Spouse: Sidney
Religion: Jewish

Committees: Homeland Security (ranking member, Intelligence subcommittee); Energy and Commerce
DC Office: 2400 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington DC, 20510,202-225-8220
District Offices: El Segundo, 310-643-3636; Wilmington, 310-549-8282
Email
Website

Path to Power

Born in New York City, Harman was raised in Los Angeles where she served as an usher at the 1960 Democratic Convention.

After graduating from Smith College and Harvard Law School, she set her sights on Washington D.C., working in the U.S. Senate-both for Sen. John Tunney (D-Calif.) and the Senate Judiciary Committee-before serving in the Carter administration.

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A rising star in Washington D.C., Harman left the White House in 1978 and took a job as special counsel at the Pentagon the following year. In 1980, she married her second husband Sidney Harman, founder of the audio equipment company Harman International Industries. Now, Harman ranks among the richest officials on Capitol Hill with disclosure forms filed in 2008 placing her net worth between $236 million to $558 million.

In 1992, Harman won the Democratic nomination for a newly-crafted U.S. House seat serving a seaside stretch of Los Angeles County, a new district with a slight conservative bent. Harman ran under the "Pro-Choice, Pro-Change" motto and had to overcome a reputation as a Washington insider. She used much of her own funds in the campaign, beating her Republican challenger 49 to 42 percent.

During her first three terms in the House, Harman was vocal about her pro-abortion rights credentials and established herself as a supporter of the defense industry, which matters in her aerospace-centric district. While these stances resonated in her district, that didn't make re-election easy. In 1994, Harman was embroiled in a series of recounts and legal challenges with a moderate Republican candidate - Susan Brooks - who had soon-to-be House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) blessing. Harman came out on top by 812 votes in an election that was finally settled the summer of 1995. Brooks would challenge Harman again in 1996, but the Democrat had an edge in funding and won that contest by a much bigger margin.

1998 Gubernatorial Bid

After it became apparent that popular Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) would not run for California's governor seat, Harman chose to forgo her 4th term as a House member to challenge two other candidates for the Democratic nomination: then-Lt. Gov. Gray Davis and former airlines mogul Al Checchi. Harman cast herself as a moderate and caught criticism from her opponents for being proud to be called "the best Republican in the Democratic Party."

The Democratic primary election was notorious for the amount of money the candidates poured into the campaigns. Harman put up $11.6 million of her own fortune, which paled in comparison with Checchi's $37 million from his personal fortune. Davis, who spent the least on his campaign, ultimately won the nomination and the seat. Meanwhile Harman garnered only 20 percent of the primary vote and was left without her previous job on Capitol Hill.

Return to Congress

In 2000, Harman was coaxed out of a teaching job at UCLA to reclaim the congressional seat she gave up two years earlier that had since fallen into Republican hands. Harman stole the seat back by less than two percentage points in a year that George W. Bush took the presidency. She retook her seat on the House Intelligence Committee, seniority intact, and snagged a spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Harman rose to become the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee and became a popular quote in the media for the Democratic perspective on foreign policy issues. But in 2006, both for political and ideological reasons, she fell out of favor with soon-to-be House Speaker Pelosi. While some Californian Democrats have said the tension arose during redistricting in 2001,when Harman was said to have advocated including Los Angeles International Airport into her now safe Democratic district,others point to Harman's high visibility as another powerful Democratic congresswoman from California as a natural point of friction. Harman's vote supporting the invasion of Iraq in 2002 didn't help either.

During the 2006 Democratic primaries, Harman was slammed for being slow to criticize the Bush administration on the Iraq war and the administration's domestic spying program. When Democrats won the congressional majority in the 2006 elections, Harman lost her seat on the Intelligence Committee, with the chairmanship handed to Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas). As a consolation prize, she was placed on the Committee on Homeland Security where she chaired the subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment.

The Issues

Harman belongs to a variety of groups that represent the centrist and conservative sides of the Democratic Party. She is a senior member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of Democrats that support fiscal restraint. She is also a member of the New Democrat Coalition. During the 110th Congress, Harman voted with her party 96.7 percent of the time, which is high compared to previous sessions.

In 2005, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Harman made promises to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in exchange for support to become the House Intelligence Committee chair. The investigation slowed down in 2006 and Harman was never charged with wrongdoing.

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Harman co-sponsored a 2009 bill on health care that provides tax subsidies for purchasing health coverage and eliminates employer-sponsored plans. But the proposal isn't likely to gain the support of the Democratic leadership.

Intelligence and Homeland Security

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Harman emerged as an early supporter of a bill creating a cabinet-level Homeland Security Deparment, which eventually brought dozens of dispersed agencies under a single umbrella.

But during the George W. Bush years, Harman was also critical of various intelligence agencies for not sharing information quickly enough. In 2004, Harman crafted a bill that overhauled the U.S. national intelligence apparatus, creating the new position of director of national intelligence to oversee several agencies.

In 2005, Harman was among a handful of congressional members accused of being complicit in the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program. Harman admitted she had been briefed about the program in 2003, regarding it as "essential to national security" despite concerns the program was going beyond targeting suspected Al Qaeda members.

The California Democrat was also among the few members of Congress who was briefed in 2003 on harsh interrogations of terrorist suspects by the CIA. Harman said she voiced concern over the tapes once learning about them, and requested that the CIA preserve them. In December 2007, CIA Director Michael Hayden acknowledged the agency destroyed the tapes. The next month, Harman's office declassified a letter she wrote to the agency dated Feb. 10, 2003, claiming destruction of the tapes "would reflect badly on the Agency."

Harman supported a 2008 amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that required special warrants and court approvals for eavesdropping operations and provided some measure of protection for telecommunications companies involved in providing the government information after Sept. 11.

In January 2009, Harman re-introduced a bill, H.R. 374, closing the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Obama issued an executive order to close the facility later that month.

Harman has repeatedly introduced a proposal that requires the Department of Homeland Security to share intelligence with state and local law enforcement agencies. The move would place information about threats in the hands of "first preventers" who Harman feels were unnecessarily denied access to crucial information during the Bush administration. The latest version of Harman's proposal cleared a House vote in February 2009, but the Senate hasn't yet taken it up.

The Economy

Harman reluctantly voted for both versions of the $700 billion financial bailout bill in 2008, saying before the initial House vote that failed, "I've gone from a 'Hell, no' to 'Probably yes.'"

The California Democrat said she was concerned about government spending months into the Obama presidency, criticizing the proposed budget that projects a $1.75 trillion deficit for 2009.

In February 2009, Harman supported Obama's economic stimulus package, though he has questioned whether the $116 billion in payroll tax cuts would help spur consumer spending.

The Network

Harman is close friends with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who supported Harman as Obama's potential CIA director. Feinstein's supporters also encouraged Harman to run for California governor in 1998.

Harman is known to reach across the aisle and has a strong bond with Republicans on intelligence issues, including former ranking Intelligence Committee member Peter Hoekstra (R- Mich.), Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

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Additional Resources