WHILE THERE is no doubt that a woman’s place is in the House and in the Senate, how good is it when a set of sisters serve in Congress? We think it’s great. There are several stories of siblings serving in state legislatures, including the sister-brother Kramer pairing in Maryland and the three Calderon brothers in California, but Rep. Linda Sanchez (D, California, 39th Congressional District, LA County) and her sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D, California, 47th Congressional District, Orange County) are unique as sister-Representatives.
Though the Sanchez sisters differed in the 2008 primary, with Linda backing Barack Obama and Loretta announcing for Hillary, they came together, and through, the recent presidential election just fine.
Linda, 39, who has one of the House’s most liberal voting records, is the younger sister, in case you are keeping score on sisters and how their birth order plays out in their politics. An attorney and former labor organizer, she is currently serving her third term, chairing the House Judiciary Subcommittee, whose recent ruling was that in defying a Congressional subpoena, former Presidential aide Karl Rove broke the law.
Loretta, 48, a former financial adviser in her sixth term, is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, known for her advocacy for human rights in Vietnam. Both sisters credit their mother’s lifelong activism on behalf of immigrant families for their own political aspirations, and tell the tale together of just how they got to Washington in a joint memoir, Dream in Color: How the Sanchez Sisters are Making History in Congress, published in 2008 by Grand Central Publishing.—Marion Roach Smith
No related posts.
First time here? Here's the idea: 