Biography:

Ellen Tauscher was born in East Newark, N.J., and lives in Pleasanton, Calif. She received a bachelor's degree in early childhood education from Seton Hall University and served on the school's board of regents from 1985 to 1989.

After the birth of her first child, she founded The ChildCare Registry Inc., a national child care provider pre-employment screening service launched in 1992. She was president and chief executive officer of the organization. She wrote a book on child care, "The Child Care Source Book."

At age 25, she became the first woman elected to a seat on the New York Stock Exchange representing a major Wall Street financial institution (Bache Securities, now Prudential Securities). She worked for the American Stock Exchange from 1979 to 1983 and then joined the investment banking firm of Bear Stearns, a subsidiary of Drexel, Burnham and Lambert.

She was a director of The Tauscher Family Companies, which has annual sales of more than $140 million and includes beef and transportation companies located in Dallas. She also created the Tauscher Foundation, which provided $200,000 to California and Texas schools to buy computer equipment for primary school children.

She chaired Diane Feinstein's 1992 and 1994 U.S. Senate campaigns. She was first elected to the U.S. House in 1996.

She divorced William Tauscher, chairman and chief executive officer of Vanstart Corp., in 1999. She has one daughter, Katherine.

Past Campaigns:

Ellen Tauscher was considered a legitimate threat to incumbent Republican Rep. Bill Baker during their 1996 10th District U.S. House race because of her family's wealth. Tauscher represented Baker's first serious challenge in four runs for the seat representing affluent suburbs east of San Francisco Bay. Tauscher's then-husband was estimated to hold between $23 million and $28 million in his company's stock.

Tauscher made family issues a centerpiece of her campaign, which was successful. She won by a 1.5 percent margin after a $2.6 million campaign, fourth-highest of that year's 435 House races.

She was re-elected in 1998 defeating Republican Charles Ball with 53 percent of the vote. She won again in 2000 with 53 percent against GOP candidate Claude Hutchison. She won the March 2002 open primary against Democrat Kurt Rasmussen with 84.9 percent of the votes.

She was re-elected in the 2002 general election, defeating Sonia Harden with 76 percent of the vote.

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