Catching Up with Zoe Lofgren

Photo Credit: photo from wikimedia.org

December 14, 2009

Meghan Merwin, Staff Reporter, and Natasha Sosa, Special Sections Editor  

Filed under Features

        Zoe Lofgren, a congresswoman in the House of Representatives, has been serving for fifteen years as the representative for California’s 16^th congressional district. This district encompasses a large part of San Jose, including many of Presentation’s students and their families. Congresswoman Lofgren kindly agreed to sit down with us at her district office and answer a few of our questions on what it’s like to be a woman involved in politics.

The Voice: First of all, how did you get started in politics?

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren: I feel that it depends on how you define politics, but I walked my first precinct with my mother when I was five years old. So I guess I didn’t think that up—my mother did. The whole time I was growing up I was involved in politics, with my mother primarily, working on campaigns and arguing over dinner about things, and I thought everyone did that. In terms of elected office, after I graduated from college I went back to Washington and talked myself into a job with congressmen Don Edwards, who was my predecessor, and I went to law school while I was working for him. Finally, after eight or nine years I had married and decided I should do something else in my life…so I went off and formed a non-profit housing development corporation and practiced law and taught law part time. I was recruited, actually, by teachers to run for community college board, which I did in ’79.

Voice: What did you study in college, and did that help you in your career?

ZL: I was the first in my family to go to college, and I think right now there’s a lot more emphasis at schools on talking to kids about college and preparing them. There was none of that in my day. So I had no idea; no one actually told me that you didn’t have to have a major, so I signed up for a major right away, which was not what I wanted because I didn’t know what I was doing. So I ended up with 11 different majors. I kept switching. I don’t recommend that, but I ended up getting a degree in political science which is not really pertinent to what I do in my job today. Law school is helpful in terms of writing laws.

Voice: When did you first realize you wanted to go into public service?

ZL: I don’t know. I didn’t really have a plan. I just sort of drifted in to this. I guess in a way I never made a decision, but I wasn’t trying to make money, I wasn’t trying to figure out ways to have a lucrative career, I was always planning ways to make a difference. So, although that wasn’t a plan, it was a life.

Voice: What do you enjoy about being a representative?

ZL: When you can accomplish something that helps people, it’s very rewarding. Everything from somebody coming in whose social security check got lost and they’re desperate and we help them, to getting a bill passed that makes the world a better place.

Voice: What do you feel has been your most important achievement as a congresswoman? Is there a bill you’ve authored or sponsored that you are particularly proud of?

ZL: There were a lot of things I’ve worked on that are satisfying. One of the things that probably would not have happened was the E-Rate, which in the ‘90s extended affordable internet service to schools and public libraries. I think that made a big difference for young people in the country. Sometimes it’s the “sleeper” things [those things that don’t seem so important] that make the difference. I’ve been interested in high-energy physics and fusion and authored a bill that was later incorporated into the science effort to support the study of physics and fusion research, which I think is an important element of research.

Voice: How do you divide your time between your district and Washington, D.C.?

ZL:  I go to Washington when there are votes, and as soon as the votes are over, I come home to San Jose. It just depends on what the vote schedule is, which I can’t control. Tomorrow I’m leaving for Washington to vote and have dinner with the president of Stanford University. We’ll have votes through Friday, and after the last vote, I’ll head to the airport and come back home. I do that most weeks.

Voice: Is it hard working in such a polarized Congress? How do you compromise?

ZL: It can be, and it’s all over the map. There are people who I serve with who are disagreeable and some people who aren’t. You can’t necessarily know from looking at C-SPAN who really is and who isn’t. Oftentimes, I know that there are Republicans who might want to vote for something but their leadership has decided that they’re all going to vote one way. I might disagree with that, but that’s not my decision, so you can’t have hard feelings over it. You just have to work and find common ground. I chair the Ethics Committee, and it’s the only committee in the House that’s evenly divided, five Democrats and five Republicans, and the senior Republican is a very conservative man from Alabama. But he and I have decided that it should not be a partisan thing. It should be about ethics and holding the standards of the house, and all of our votes have been unanimous. Although it’s not a fun assignment, it’s rewarding to approach it in a bipartisan way.

Voice: What is it like being a woman in politics? What are some benefits or disadvantages of being a woman in politics?

ZL: Well I’ve never been a man in politics, so I wouldn’t know! I think especially under some of the older guys this isn’t what they were raised expecting, that women would be professionals, but they do their best to adjust. I think electorally women in this area have a little bit of an edge, actually. We don’t have a lot of scandals in our community, and there haven’t ever been any around women who are office holders. People are very used to electing women in this area, and I never feel any disadvantage.

Voice: How do you manage to maintain a balance between being a politician and being with your family?

ZL: I do think it’s hard to manage everything, but I think that’s true for any parents in public life that includes others. Hopefully my children, who are grown now, did not suffer, but that’s equally true for people in other demanding jobs. If you’re a surgeon and you get called in the middle of a birthday party to the emergency room, or if you’re a factory worker on the night shift, it’s hard to juggle your job and your family. This is no different, and I don’t think it’s worse than other jobs.

Voice: One last question—how long do you see yourself continuing in this field?

ZL: I have no idea. Every other year my husband and I sit down and say “Are we going to do this another time or not?” and it’s really a balance between whether you’re accomplishing something or not. The travel is brutal, and it’s hard on my husband. So it’s got to be more than what I want.

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Tags: Congress, Lofgren, Zoe Lofgren