Reason to Believe
I've been feeling a little cynical lately so I thought I'd write about Jackie Speier just to make myself feel better about what's going on in the state of California and GOP attempts to paint it red. Besides I met her a couple of weeks ago and she was pretty cool.
She's the California State Senator who took Ahnold down recently after he vetoed her bill to cut the use of supplements among high school athletes. She thought "that's weird," did some checking, and found out about his lucrative contracts to endorse said supplements. His polls then started their big tank-aroo.
But Speier is also a notable character in California history, having been one of the assistants to Congressman Leo Ryan when he went to Guyana in 1978 to investigate rumors about the People's Temple. Speier was shot along with Ryan and left to die on the tarmac for 22 hours by Jim Jones' death squad. Part of her thigh was blown away and she sipped Rum to kill the pain. (Gotta love her for that.) She still carries some of the bullets.
Anyway, Speier is running for Lieutenant Governor of California, and admits it's the first step in running for the Governor's seat. I don't know enough about either her or her politics to know if she'd be good, bad or otherwise, but I sure like her spirit.
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 9/26/2005 10:13:00 PM
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