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[[Image:Bob Filner portraitsmall.jpg|frame|right|Bob Filner]] |
[[Image:Bob Filner portraitsmall.jpg|frame|right|Bob Filner]] |
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'''Dr. Robert "Bob" Filner''' (born [[September 4]] [[1942]]), is |
'''Dr. Robert "Bob" Filner''' (born [[September 4]] [[1942]]), is a [[Jewish]] [[United States|American]] [[United States Democratic Party|Democratic]] politician who represents [[California]]'s 51st Congressional District([http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/ca51_109.gif map]) in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]. The district includes much of [[San Diego]]'s southern section, the cities of [[Chula Vista]] and [[National City]] and all of [[Imperial County, California|Imperial County]]. It includes California's entire share of the border with [[Mexico]]. |
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==Biography== |
==Biography== |
Revision as of 05:25, 21 March 2006
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Bob_Filner_portraitsmall.jpg)
Dr. Robert "Bob" Filner (born September 4 1942), is a Jewish American Democratic politician who represents California's 51st Congressional District(map) in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district includes much of San Diego's southern section, the cities of Chula Vista and National City and all of Imperial County. It includes California's entire share of the border with Mexico.
Biography
Filner was born in Pittsburgh. As a student at Cornell University, he participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961, spending several months in jail for his efforts. Also, as a student, he worked as a member of the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper. He graduated from Cornell in 1963 and earned his doctorate from the same school six years later. Shortly after earning his Ph.D, he moved to San Diego, becoming a history professor at San Diego State University. He resigned his position in 1992 to run for Congress.
Filner was long interested in politics, serving as a staffer for Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota in 1975 and for Congressman Don Fraser, also of Minnesota, in 1976. He also served as a staffer for Congressman Jim Bates from the San Diego area in 1984.
His elective career began in 1979, when his opposition to the closing of a neighborhood school led him to run for the San Diego school board where he defeated a longtime incumbent. Even though he was the only Democrat on the board, his "back to basics" approach to education won him wide praise, and his colleagues elected him president of the board in 1982. For part of his tenure on the board, he served alongside Susan Davis, who now represents most of the other side of San Diego in the House. He was elected to the San Diego City Council in 1987. He was handily reelected in 1991, and his colleagues elected him deputy mayor. His main interest was in economic expansion.
California gained seven seats after the 1990 census, and one of them was the 50th District in south San Diego (renumbered the 51st District after the 2000 census). Filner ran in a five-way Democratic primary for the seat and won a narrow victory. One of his primary opponents was his former boss, Bates, who had lost his seat in a sexual harassment scandal in 1990 and whose home had been drawn into the district. The district was almost 40% Hispanic (redistricting in 2000 made it 53% Hispanic) and heavily Democratic, and his victory in November (with 57 percent of the vote) was a foregone conclusion. He has been reelected six times with no substantive Republican opposition. He ran unopposed in 1998.
Filner is ranking Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Marine Transportation. He also serves on the Veterans Affairs Committee. He is one of the most liberal members of the House and was a founding member of the Progressive Caucus