A female pioneer in the male-dominated New York Stock
Exchange, Ellen Tauscher used her Wall Street business
experience and negotiating skills to become a prominent
Democratic centrist in the U.S. House. Representing
a suburban Bay Area district, Tauscher specialized in
national security issues from her seat on the Armed Services
Committee—eventually serving as chair of the Strategic
Forces Subcommittee.
Ellen Tauscher was born Ellen O’Kane in Newark,
New Jersey, on November 15, 1951. The daughter of John
and Mary O’Kane, a grocery store owner and secretary,
she was the eldest of four children. Tauscher earned a
bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Seton
Hall University in 1974. In her mid-20s, she became one
of the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock
Exchange, beginning a 14-year Wall Street career which
included serving as an American Stock Exchange officer. In
1989 she married William Tauscher and raised a daughter,
Katherine. The couple later divorced. In 1992 Ellen
Tauscher founded a company that screened prospective
childcare providers. She later authored The Child Care
Source Book. She also created the Tauscher Foundation,
which donated $200,000 to elementary schools in California and Texas to buy computer equipment. In 1992
and 1994, Tauscher served as the state co-chair for Dianne
Feinstein’s successful campaigns to the U.S. Senate. Her
later marriage with James Cieslak ended in divorce.1
In 1996 Tauscher challenged incumbent California
Republican William P. Baker in a newly created delta district
comprising bedroom communities that were known as the
most conservative in the Bay Area. “A millionaire former
stockbroker and businesswoman, she looked, at first glance,
like a Rockefeller Republican,’’ Time magazine wrote. “Her
husband was actually a Republican.”2
Tauscher, who wanted
to reduce certain government spending she considered
wasteful, ran on a platform of gun control, women’s right
to abortion, and increased spending on education. In a
race with three minor-party candidates, Tauscher won with
49 percent of the vote to Baker’s 47 percent. “My message
throughout this campaign was one of moderation and
common sense,” Tauscher declared afterwards. “I want to go
back to Washington and stand in the middle . . . where most
Americans stand.”3
In the next two elections, Tauscher won
slightly more comfortable margins over GOP candidates,
defeating Charles Ball 53 to 43 percent, and Claude
Hutchison 52 to 44 percent.4
When Tauscher took her seat in the 105th Congress
(1997–1999), she received assignments on two committees:
Science; and Transportation and Infrastructure. Before the
end of her first term, Tauscher resigned from the Science
Committee for a seat on the National Security Committee
(later renamed Armed Services), where she remained, along
with her Transportation Committee assignment, for the
balance of her career in the House.5
As a member of the Armed Services Committee,
Tauscher outlined an activist role for America in the
international arena. In the spring of 1999, when the
William J. (Bill) Clinton administration coordinated
NATO air attacks against Serbia for invading Kosovo
and oppressing its people—including ethnic cleansing—
Tauscher insisted that ground troops be sent.6
In the 108th
Congress (2003–2005), Tauscher played a vocal role in the
Iraq War; she called for additional troops and equipment,
and visited the region four times.7
Her district was the only
one in the country with two national defense laboratories—
Lawrence Livermore and Sandia/California. And she
secured over $200 million in funding for Livermore’s “super
laser” project.8
Tauscher also had a prominent role on the Science
Committee. The committee had jurisdiction over the
National Nuclear Security Administration and the U.S.
nuclear weapons program, and Tauscher supported the
adoption of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.9
During
the markup of a technology bill, Tauscher added an
amendment that sought to streamline the review process
for when federal agencies and private entities work on
sensitive issues involving national security. Although
the House-passed bill did not become law, it provided a
framework for similar legislation that was signed into law
the following Congress.10
And from her seat on Transportation and Infrastructure,
Tauscher steered federal funding to improve the Bay Area’s
badly strained transportation systems, including $33 million
for projects in her district.11
Tauscher was a vocal supporter of cutting taxes, especially
the “marriage penalty” and the estate tax and voted to
override President Clinton’s 2000 veto of an estate tax
repeal. She opposed Republican proposals in the 106th
Congress to slash taxes by almost $800 billion and also
opposed the 2001 tax cut proposed by the George W.
Bush administration and passed by Congress.12 Her
alternative plan for tax cuts, which were “triggered” only after the government took in surplus revenue, became the
Democratic alternative to the $1.6 trillion cut proposed by
the GOP.13
In 1998 Time magazine called Tauscher’s legislative
style “Tauscherism,” a kind of middle-of-the road
politics that blended fiscal conservatism with
social liberalism.14 “Tauscherism” also reflected the
political realities of her suburban district which, until
reapportionment in 2002, was more Republican than
Democratic. When the lines were redrawn by the California
legislature, Tauscher easily won election to a fourth term,
with 75 percent of the vote against Libertarian candidate
Sonia Harden. In 2004 Tauscher won re-election with 66
percent of the vote against Republican Jeff Ketelson. In
2006 and 2008, voters returned her to office with 66 and
65 percent of the vote, respectively.15
In 2009 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
appointed Tauscher Under Secretary of State for Arms
Control and International Security. Upon her confirmation
by the Senate, Tauscher resigned her House seat on June
26, 2009. Tauscher served as undersecretary until her
resignation on February 6, 2012.16 The following day, she
was sworn in as a special envoy for strategic stability and
missile defense for the U.S. Department of State.17 Tauscher
later worked in several advisory positions in the private
sector. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 but defeated
it after a two-year battle. Tauscher died of pneumonia on
April 29, 2019, in Stanford, California.18
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]
