Senator Dianne Feinstein, California’s senior representative in the nation’s upper legislative house, has died. She was 90.
A Democrat, she was the oldest member of the Senate and, having been elected in 1992, the longest serving woman to ever serve in the chamber. Her 31 years in office also made her the longest-serving senator from California in the state’s 173-year history.
Born in San Francisco in 1933 and a 1955 Stanford graduate, Dianne Emiel Goldman Berman Feinstein’s rise as a political leader took place in the city of her birth. She was first elected to the San Francisco City Council in 1969. San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, the only such entity in California, with the city limits of San Francisco coterminous with the San Francisco County border. Its mayor is also the county’s chief executive and the city council doubles as the county board of supervisors.
She ran unsuccessfully for mayor against the incumbent, Joseph Alioto, in 1971.  In 1975, she ran again when Alioto opted out of seeking a third term for mayor. She finished in third, narrowly losing to second place finisher, Supervisor John Baragelata, who lost in the run-off against State Senator George Moscone.
She was yet a supervisor/councilwoman in 1978, when Mayor Moscone and Supervisor/Councilman Harvey Milk were assassinated by Dan White, himself a former supervisor/councilman. It was Feinstein that  member of the same board. Feinstein barely avoided being killed by White herself, coming into San Francisco City Hall just moments after the shooting and White had left. She was the first to come upon Milk’s lifeless body. She reached to feel for his pulse, encountering a bullet hole. Shortly thereafter, she became a national figure as she was seen in television news reports announcing the murders. A week later, she was selected by her board/council colleagues to replace Moscone.
Feinstein was elected mayor in 1979. In 1983, she outlasted a recall attempt and then was reelected mayor, serving in that capacity until 1988. She was prevented from seeking reelection in 1988 because of term limits.