Candidate for
State Senator; District 10

Liz Figueroa, a Democrat, was elected to the California State Senate in November of 1998 to represent the 10th Senate District. Prior to her election she served two terms in the California State Assembly; she is the first Northern California Latina to be elected to the Assembly in the past century. Her parents are both from El Salvador.

Senator Figueroa currently serves as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Business and Professions, the Joint Legislative Sunset Review Committee, and the Senate Select Committee on Commercial Technology. She is a member of the Senate Committees on Transportation, Health and Human Services, Insurance, and Industrial Relations. She also serves on the Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Transportation and the Senate Insurance Committee's Subcommittee on Managed Care Reform. While in the Assembly, Figueroa chaired both the Insurance Committee and the Select Committee on Aerospace.

Figueroa has been named Legislator of the Year by numerous organizations, including the March of Dimes, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Association of Retarded Citizens, Leadership California and the California National Organization for Women. The American Electronics Association named Figueroa Legislator of the Year three years in a row. Figueroa successfully fought to include research and development tax credits for aerospace and high-tech firms for several years in the state budget.

In her first term the Assembly, Figueroa delivered nine bills to the Governor's desk, all of which were signed into law -- the highest percentage of any freshman legislator. She has consistently carried legislation that demonstrates her dedication to serving the needs of her constituents-improving access to and the quality of health care, streamlining business regulations, and protecting consumers. Figueroa worked with the White House on landmark legislation that ensured a two-day hospital stay for mothers and their newborns, a bill that mirrored a successful California law Figueroa authored. In 1997, Figueroa co-chaired the conference committee that drafted California's Healthy Families program, which provides health insurance for the children of the working poor. Her work on behalf of women and human rights has gained international recognition. This includes such important issues as outlawing female genital mutilation, banning California's use of products made by slave labor, and prohibiting insurance companies from discriminating against victims of domestic violence.

As Senator, Figueroa has been a leader in the high profile fight to reform managed care in California. Governor Gray Davis characterized her bill giving patients the right to sue their HMO as the "crown jewel" in the HMO reform package, and signed into law more HMO reform bills authored by Figueroa than by any other legislator. In addition, Figueroa's bill to protect the privacy of patient medical records makes California the nation's leader in guaranteeing confidential medical information is not abused by HMO's for any purpose not directly related to health care. Other legislation authored by Figueroa compelled insurance companies to replace child safety seats damaged in a collision, restricted false and misleading advertising for cosmetic surgery advertisements, and secured funding for the 410 mile-long San Francisco Bay Trail.

The Senator was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to serving in the State Legislature, she owned and operated Figueroa Employment Consultants, a business that specialized in placing injured workers in jobs, for seventeen years. In 1985, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Union Sanitary District and served as the district's president, the first female in its 71-year history.

Senator Figueroa currently serves as a board member for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Hispanic Community Affairs Council, Fremont Adult School Advisory Board, Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, Legal Assistance for Seniors, and is President of the Board for the California Elected Women's Association for Education and Research (CEWAER). Figueroa is the mother of AnaLisa Luippold and Aaron Bloom.