Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has earned the reputation as being one of the Senate’s most effective lawmakers. Widely considered the matriarch of California politics, the senior senator from the Golden State has enjoyed a storied political career spanning five decades at the local and national levels.

Feinstein was first elected to the Senate in a 1992 special election. In 14 years in Congress’s upper chamber, Feinstein has earned a reputation as a pragmatic voice of reason amidst the divisive rancor of Capitol Hill. Though a staunch supporter of such traditional liberal causes as gun control and abortion rights, Feinstein has gained respect from both sides of the aisle for her willingness to seek political compromise and bipartisan solutions.

A San Francisco native, Feinstein graduated from the University in 1955 with a degree in History. At Stanford, Feinstein served as president of Roble Hall, and was later elected vice president of the student body.

“Dianne was such a lovely person to everyone,” recalled alumna Carole Cole, who lived with Feinstein as a freshman in Roble. “It was obvious to all of us that she was going to be a leader.”

Feinstein first held major political office in 1969, when she was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She became mayor when, as the president of the Board of Supervisors, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were assassinated in Nov. 1978. In doing so, Feinstein became the first female mayor of a large American city. She was thereafter reelected to two full terms.

Feinstein inspired significant praise and incurred some criticism from Democratic pundits for her decision not to enter the gubernatorial recall election of 2003, a race many believed she would win. Feinstein had survived a 1984 recall attempt in her own right as San Francisco mayor.

Feinstein is thought to have been considered as a running mate by then-Vice President Al Gore during his run for the presidency in 2000, before Gore settled on Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman.

As a long-serving senator, Feinstein is privileged to serve on five permanent committees. As the only female on the Judiciary Committee, she garnered close attention for her deliberation during the confirmation hearings of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. Feinstein ultimately voted against both nominees.

Feinstein invoked her time at the University during the Roberts hearing, when she insisted that the nominee take a firm position on abortion.

“As a college student at Stanford, I watched the passing of the plate to collect money so a young woman could go to Tijuana for a back-alley abortion,” she said.

Feinstein was the Democratic sponsor of a failed Constitutional Amendment to ban flag-burning this summer. Though her championing of this issue angered some liberal supporters and First Amendment advocates, the fallout surrounding the failed amendment does not seem to have affected Feinstein’s support among the general electorate.

With the Nov. 7 midterm elections only four days away, Feinstein appears poised to win her third full term. She leads Republican challenger Richard Mountjoy by wide margins in opinion polls and fundraising, and has devoted much time to campaigning on behalf of other California politicians.