Sally J. Lieber
Sally Lieber (born April 24, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan) is a Democratic California State Assembly member and former Mountain View, California City Council member and Vice Mayor. She represents the 22nd Assembly District that includes most of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino and parts of San Jose which are all located in Santa Clara County. She is married to her husband David and they together have a black and white pet cat.
Lieber holds the office of Speaker pro Tempore in the current 2007-2008 legislative session. In the November 7, 2006 general election she was reelected to her third and final term in the assembly, beating her Republican opponent Roger Riffenburgh by 68.8% to 31.2%. Next election cycle she will be term-limited out of the office. Lieber announced in December 2006 that she'll be running for the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors district 5 in 2008 against Liz Kniss [1].
Background
Early life
Lieber was born in Detroit, Michigan on April 24, 1961. As a youth growing up in the '60s and '70s, and she was interested in the antiwar and civil rights movements. In junior high school, she wore glasses over her hair so she would look like Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon and revolutionary journalist.
After graduating high school, Lieber didn't think she could make it through college because she wasn't a good student so she
began a small business that specialized in hanging wallpaper in old Victorian homes [2] [3]. She spent 10 years at
this job. As she hung wallpaper, Lieber's interest in politics grew as she listened to
Return to school
In her late 20s, she took night classes at San Francisco City College. During this time, she met her husband David Phillips, a product management director in Mountain View. The two ran into each other at Burning Man, an art festival held every year in the Nevada desert.
After they married in 1992, Lieber moved to the peninsula and transferred to Foothill College, where she started going to school full-time and got involved in student government. She became concerned about child care for single moms and access for the disabled and health care.
Local politics
In the mid-1990s, Lieber transferred to Stanford University with a political science major. When she took his urban politics class, she began to think seriously about running for the Mountain View City Council. The 37-year-old Lieber, still a senior at Stanford, launched her campaign for city government in 1998. Everyone thought Lieber would lose but she instead received move votes then the 6 incumbents. She later told the Stanford Magazine that they could expect to see her in Sacramento soon although she had not seen the state capitol as late as 1998. Lieber would later serve as Vice Mayor of Mountain View in 1998. In 2001 a group of citizens launched an effort to recall her from office but that effort ultimately failed to gain enough signatures to get the recall measure to the ballot.
Run for the Assembly
Lieber ran for the 22nd Assembly district seat in 2002. She ran against Santa Clara council member Rod Diridon Jr. who was endorsed by most of the party heavyweights and fellow Mountain View council member Rosemary Stasek in the democratic primary. She surprised some a political spectators when she won with 44 percent of the vote. Her volunteers walked to 58,000 households during the campaign [4].
Lieber won the general election against Sunnyvale Republican Mayor Stan Kawczynski. Kawcynski accused Lieber of voter fraud because Lieber referred to herself on the ballot as a "councilwoman" instead of a councilmember and because she referred to her position on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board of Directors as a transit director [5]. A lawsuit over the issue was dismissed.
Assembly member
Leadership positions and committees
During her first term she served as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore. She is the only woman to have functioned as an officer of the assembly in her first term. She took the oath of office for Speaker pro Tempore on October 24, 2006. She also serves on the Committee on Insurance, Committee on Judiciary, Committee on Local Government, Committee on Revenue and Taxation and as the Chair of the Committee on Mobilehomes.
Legislative priorities and accomplishments
Sally Lieber's main legislative priorities include: increased educational and economic opportunities for all citizens of
California, protection for the environment, improvements to
Lieber was instrumental in achieving passage of an increase in the state minimum wage, a green house gas reduction bill, and a legalization of gay marriage (though that bill was later vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger). Lieber was one of only a few heterosexual legislators to joint-author Mark Leno's marriage equality bill. She has authored legislation that includes efforts increasing pupil immunizations, creating an independent sentencing commission, and improving the living conditions of inmates in California's overcrowded prisons.
Most of her bills sprout from the ground up, rooted in social inequalities that her community members face. She has pressed for a death penalty moratorium, advocating for the rights of pregnant inmates in state prison, fighting for victims of human trafficking and battling toxic-dumping corporations. Most recently, she helped thousands of people by pushing for a mandatory vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Homelessness experience
In April 2006, Lieber spent several days living homeless in Silicon Valley in an attempt to understand the problems the homeless face and how the legislature can help them. She begged for money and collected cans and bottles to buy food on the streets of Mountain View and San Jose [6]. Lieber used the experience to encourage the Governor to keep cold weather shelters open for the homeless.
Spanking bill
Lieber was in the press in January 2007 by announcing she was planning on introducing a bill that will make it illegal in California to spank a child three years-old or younger. The proposed bill has since been opposed by some on the basis of the practical aspects of enforcing it, though there are those who support it as well (early polling suggests that it is supported by 23% of Californians).[1] Lieber was not spanked as a child [7].
Political leanings
Her infamous spanking bill has given her a reputation in the eyes of some as a staunch liberal, but her legislative work with conservative Republican Chuck DeVore and having only 22 of her 27 bills from 2005 to 2006 were signed in into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger complicates her label as a liberal [8].
Lieber is pro-choice. She has received low ratings from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Chamber of Commerce. Lieber has been rated at 100% by the Sierra Club California, the California National Organization for Women, California League of Conservation Voters, California School Employees Association, the California Alliance for Retired Americans, and the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO.
References
- ^ Yi, Matthew. Spank a little kid, go to jail, if bill becomes law - Critics blast effort as intrusive and difficult to enforce, SFGate.com, January 19, 2007, retrieved January 23, 2007
- Bazelon, Emily. Hitting Bottom - Why America should outlaw spanking, Slate Magazine, January 25, 2007, retrieved February 1, 2007.
- League of Women Voters. Voter Information for Sally Lieber, SmartVoter.org, October 14, 2006, retrieved November 25, 2006.
- Mangaliman, Jessie. No hope for GOP in some districts, Mercury News, September 24, 2006, retrieved November 25, 2006.
- McPherson, Bruce. 2006 Election Results for State Assembly District 22, California Secretary of State Live Election Returns, November 17, 2006, retrieved November 25, 2006.
- Myronuck, Jen. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber Goes Homeless, Citizenjen.com, April 24, 2006, retrieved November 26, 2006.
- Office of Assemblywoman Sally J. Lieber. Speaker pro Tempore Sally Lieber takes oath of office in public ceremony in Mountain View, democrats.assembly,ca.gov, October 24, 2006, retrieved November 25, 2006.
- Recall Lieber Committee. Recall Sally Lieber, recallsallylieber.org, August 07, 2003, retrieved November 26, 2006.
- D'Agostino, Bill. “Mayor's assembly opponent claims ballot fraud: Republican candidate Stan Kawczynski and attorney Gary Wesley claim Sally Lieber's ballot designation sexist, fraudulent.” My Voice. Friday, August 23, 2002 [9]. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
- Normand, Vrinda. “Spanks for The Memories.” Metroactive. March 7-13, 2007. [10]. Retrieved July 14, 2007
- Smart Voter on Sally Lieber, http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=29268. Retrieved July 14, 2007.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
