Harman, Jane, 1945-

<p>Jane L. Harman first won election to the House of Representatives in 1992, the breakthrough “Year of the Woman,” and became a leading figure in Congress on security issues as a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In 2001, after leaving Congress for a term to run, unsuccessfully, for California governor, Harman reclaimed her former seat. “The quality of life in Congress stinks,” Harman said during her re-election bid in 2000. “On the other side of the ledger is the future of public policy in this country. And I’m a policy addict.” During her second period of service in the House, she served on the intelligence panel and on the newly created Committee on Homeland Security.</p>

<p>Jane Harman was born Jane Margaret Lakes in New York City on June 28, 1945, to Adolph N. and Lucille (Geier) Lakes. Raised in Los Angeles, she graduated from University High School in 1962. After earning a BA in government from Smith College in 1966, she received her law degree from Harvard three years later. She worked for two years at a Washington, DC, law firm before joining the staff of California U.S. Senator John Varick Tunney in 1972. In 1975 she became chief counsel and staff director of the Constitutional Rights Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She served as deputy secretary to the Cabinet of President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1978 and then became a special counsel to the Department of Defense. She married Richard Frank in 1969, and they had two children: Brian and Hilary. They divorced in 1978, and two years later, she married Sidney Harman, the founder of an audio and electronics company. Through the 1980s, Harman worked as a corporate lawyer and as a director of her husband’s company. The Harmans have two children: Daniel and Justine. Sidney Harman died in April 2011.</p>

<p>Harman first pursued elected office in 1992, when she ran for a newly drawn congressional seat that ran along the coast of southern California from Venice to Long Beach. In one of the few primaries during the 1992 election cycle that featured two women, Harman easily defeated Ada Unruh by 30 percentage points. In the general election, Harman faced Republican Joan Milke Flores, a Los Angeles city councilwoman, and three candidates from other parties. Harman spent $2.5 million, much of it her own money, during the campaign, and ran on a socially liberal but fiscally conservative platform. She defeated Flores by six percentage points. In 1994, running in one of the most competitive districts in the country in an election that propelled the GOP into the House majority for the first time in 40 years, Harman defeated her Republican opponent Susan Brooks by a mere 812 votes. When Harman faced Brooks again in 1996, she won by more than 19,000 votes (a margin of more than 8 percent).</p>

<p>Jane Margaret Lakes Harman (born June 28, 1945) is the former U.S. Representative for California's 36th congressional district, serving from 1993 to 1999, and from 2001 to 2011; she is a member of the Democratic Party. Harman was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and the Homeland Security Committee's intelligence subcommittee. When Democrats held the House majority, she was in line to chair the House intelligence committee but was denied the post by then-Speaker Pelosi. Resigning from Congress in February 2011, Harman became President and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She succeeded former Congressman Lee H. Hamilton and is the first woman to lead the organization.</p>

<p>Harman was born Jane Margaret Lakes in New York City, the daughter of Lucille (née Geier) and Adolf N. Lakes. Her father was born in Poland and escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935; he worked as a medical doctor. Her mother was born in the United States and was the first one in her family to receive college education. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Russia. Harman's family moved to Los Angeles, California when she was 4 and there she attended Los Angeles public schools, graduating from University High School in 1962. She received a bachelor's degree in government with honors from Smith College in 1966 and graduated magna cum laude and served as president of the Smith College Young Democrats. Harman continued her studies at Harvard Law School, where she earned her Juris Doctor degree in 1969.</p>

<p>After graduating from law school, Harman - then known as Jane Lakes - married future NOAA administrator Richard A. Frank in 1969, and they had two children. They spent a short time in Switzerland and then she worked for two years as an associate with the law firm Surrey, Karasik and Morse in Washington, DC. She began her political career by serving on the staff of Senator John V. Tunney, and as his staff director from 1972-73. In 1973, Tunney named her his chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. During this time she also taught at Georgetown. When Tunney lost re-election in 1976, Harman - then known as Jane Lakes Frank - joined the Carter White House where she served as special counsel to the Department of Defense, and as Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet. She made headlines in 1978, when she quit to spend more time with her children. She and her husband, Richard Frank divorced the same year. Two years later, she married Sidney Harman, who she had met in the White House when he was her first husband's boss. Through the 1980s, Jane Harman worked as a corporate lawyer and as a director of her husband's company, Harman International Industries.</p>