Jackie Speier won’t seek reelection

Speier’s career as an elected official spans from a San Mateo County supervisor, a state assemblymember and state senator, to her current role in Congress. Speier, born in San Francisco, attended public schools in Burlingame and South San Francisco before earning her law degree from UC Hastings. She lives in Hillsborough.  

While working as congressional staffer in 1978, Speier was shot five times during a trip with U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan to investigate the Jonestown cult in Guyana. Ryan and four others died, and Speier, 29 at the time, waited 22 hours for rescuers while unsure if gunmen would return to kill her.

“Forty-three years ago this week I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet wounds,” said Speier, D-San Mateo. “I vowed that if I survived I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived ... and I served.”

In Congress, Speier established herself as a champion for women’s rights, working to end sexual assault and harassment on college campuses and in government. Speier, who chairs the House Military Personnel Subcommittee, recently passed key legislation to overhaul the way military sexual assault cases are handled, including advancing rules that remove cases from the military chain of command. 

Speier on multiple occasions shared personal experiences motivating her work, telling her own story of being sexually harassed as a young congressional aide during the #MeToo movement and sharing her experience undergoing a second-trimester abortion in protest of proposed laws aiming to limit the procedure.

In a word of advice to her predecessor, Speier said, “be bold, don’t shrink from taking on tough issues. Taking on the military on sexual assault took me 10 years to accomplish, but it can be done.”

Speier also played an instrumental role in holding Pacific Gas and Electric accountable after the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion and fire in 2010, bringing millions in compensation to survivors. 

While Speier said her time in Congress was “incredible” and afforded her many opportunities to learn about important issues, it was her time as a state legislator that she found most rewarding. Speier’s 18 years as a state lawmaker included work on prison reform, women’s rights and consumer protection among other things.

Speier authored a series of bills that secured more than $2 billion in unpaid child support by adding teeth for enforcement. She authored a bill that strengthened the state’s financial privacy laws to some of the best in the nation. Speier also secured $127 million in 2003 to fund Caltrain’s “Baby Bullet” train that now runs from San Jose to San Francisco.

“I had 300 bills that became law by mostly Republican governors,” recalled Speier of her time in the Legislature. 

Speier will finish her remaining year in the House, after which she said she hopes to create a new charitable foundation to support San Mateo County nonprofits. 

“We used to have the Peninsula Community Foundation which was a source of a lot of assistance to the various nonprofits,” said Speier.

The Peninsula Community Foundation was folded into the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in 2006, the latter of which “abandoned San Mateo County” according to Speier. Speier said will help seed money for a new foundation and acquire funding for distribution to areas of need in the county.

“That’s a goal,” said Speier. “And then everyone has to hold on to their wallets because I’m coming after them.”

Speier’s retirement announcement sparked a volley of praise for her strength and accomplishments while in office from local leaders Tuesday. State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, called Speier a “true superhero.” Assembly Speaker pro Tem Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco recalled being awed by Speier’s willingness to “stand up to powerful interests” regardless of political consequences.

“It was the embodiment of integrity, with a fidelity to the public interest above all other considerations,” said Mullin in a statement. “Jackie leaves a public legacy of accomplishment that will stand the test of time.”

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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