Anyone who knows Jane Harman knows that the Harvard Law School-trained, six-term Member of Congress and mother of four is also a disciplined runner and avid athlete. If it’s sunrise in Southern California, odds are good that you’ll find Jane Harman jogging along the beach near her solar-powered home in Venice.

But the race Harman will run in 2006 requires as much if not more stamina than a 10K – the race for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 36th Congressional District.

	“Friends and colleagues often ask me why a middle-aged mother of four wants to serve in the U.S. Congress. To me, the answer is simple: to add value, to make a difference. To know, at the end of the day, that I’ve done everything I can to make our country and the world better, safer places.”

As the senior Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Harman has emerged as a major voice on critical questions of intelligence, terrorism, and homeland security. She’s a leader in the Committee’s pioneering bipartisan investigation into the pre-war intelligence on Iraq, the subsequent search for weapons of mass destruction, and the continued threat to U.S. and coalition forces stationed in Iraq.

Harman was a member of the National Commission on Terrorism and part of Congress’ Joint 9/11 Inquiry. At the request of the House Speaker and Minority Leader, she helped spearhead all House actions in response to the attack of 9/11. She also serves on the new House Select Committee on Homeland Security.

	“I want to ensure that our government protects our national priorities, our homeland security, and our civil liberties. I want to ensure that American foreign policy is reasoned, just, and a force for peace.”

Endorsed by the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters, Jane Harman has been an effective fighter for clean air and water, local wetlands restoration, and helped lead efforts to end the threat of oil drilling off California’s coast and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s rollbacks of environmental regulations, Harman is a long-time leader in congressional efforts to put America on the path of energy independence and promotes policies to expand the use of clean energy technologies.

Jane Harman is an unwavering supporter of a woman’s right to choose and of equal rights and opportunities for all Americans, regardless of age, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

	“As a working mother, I want to expand opportunities for children, working families – to enable all to share in the American dream. I want to keep Congress focused on fiscal responsibility, job creation, education, affordable housing, health care and environmental protection. I want to end discrimination and intolerance in the workplace and the community.”

Born in New York City on June 28, 1945, by the late 1940s Jane Lakes had moved with her parents and younger brother to Los Angeles, where her father – a refugee from Nazi Germany – established a thriving medical practice. Her life-long commitment to public service was crystallized at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, where she served as an usher and saw John F. Kennedy nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. Harman graduated from L.A. public schools (Warner Avenue Elementary, Emerson Jr. High, and University High), Smith College and Harvard Law School.

Prior to her election to Congress, Harman worked as an attorney, served as chief counsel and staff director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for President Jimmy Carter and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense. In 1999, she was named Regents’ Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught public policy and international relations.

	“Never in my lifetime have the challenges been so great. Never before has the call to public service been so strong. It’s been a privilege to serve the people of the 36th Congressional District over the past decade, and I am eager to put my experience to work for another term.”

The Congresswoman is married to Sidney Harman, founder and Executive Chairman of Harman International, and has four children.