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Los Angeles County, CA July 12, 2011 Election
Smart Voter Full Biography for Janice Hahn

Candidate for
United States Representative; District 36

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

Janice Hahn was elected as Councilwoman of the 15th District of the City of Los Angeles in June of 2001 and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. The 15th District encompasses the communities of Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro, Watts and Wilmington and covers a significant portion of the 36th Congressional District.

Councilwoman Hahn serves as the Chair of the Trade, Commerce and Tourism Committee, which oversees the Port of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles International Airport and the Convention & Visitors Bureau. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Education & Neighborhoods Committee where she works closely with the citywide network of neighborhood councils to ensure that community stakeholders have a say in local issues.

For the past ten years on the council, Hahn has worked on a broad range of issues from creating jobs, ensuring better education for students, fighting for more public safety, a cleaner environment and more access to healthcare. Throughout her tenure on the Council, she has also worked closely with local, state, and federal government officials to create jobs by modernizing and greening the Los Angeles Port Complex, the Los Angeles World Airports, and the L.A. Air Force Base.

When it comes dealing with the Port of Los Angeles and LAX Airport, Hahn's experience is unmatched. She has worked to expand and green the Port of Los Angeles which has resulted in the creation of countless high skill, high wage jobs. Hahn was instrumental in extending gate hours at the Port which consequently reduced the truck traffic on Los Angeles streets and highways, and has significantly help improve the local air quality. In addition, Hahn has led the effort for waterfront development in the Harbor area, the Clean Trucks Program, ensured "Tsunami Readiness" at the Port, and she has helped to establish a new Port Police Station. Hahn has also been a champion of modernizing LAX through the multi-billion dollar capital program which is making the airport more efficient so that it can meet the demands of the 21st century traveling public.

Especially in tough times, Councilwoman Hahn has always fought for jobs and local businesses. Recently she has worked to help revitalize downtown San Pedro and develop over 1,000 new units and business openings. Hahn has fought for hotel workers along the Century Blvd. corridor to ensure higher mandatory wages, health insurance, and that hotel workers are not deprived of their tips or other job enhancements at the hotels. Furthermore, she led the effort to ensure that service workers at LAX received health care, and she has always supported project labor agreements at the Port and LAX Airport.

Before serving on the City Council, Hahn served the 15th District as its elected representative on the Charter Reform Commission. Included in the new Charter are many elements championed by Councilwoman Hahn such as, neighborhood councils, Area Planning Commissions, regular mandatory financial audits of all City departments and permanent local representation on the Harbor and Airport Commissions. Prior serving on the Charter Reform Commission, Hahn was a middle school teacher.

Councilwoman Hahn has also been instrumental in the success of the city's network of neighborhood councils, working to empower them on a daily basis. Today, the city's 80-plus neighborhood councils wield influence and power in decisions that affect their neighborhoods.

The Councilwoman has always been an advocate of keeping children out of gangs. She believes that the way to do this is through early prevention. The Councilwoman has worked diligently to develop the Gang Alternatives Program, which works to keep children as young as the 4th grade out of gangs. Hahn continues to lead the fight to fund gang prevention, intervention, job training and after-school programs throughout the City.

Since taking office, the Councilwoman has also worked to improve City services in our neighborhoods and to ensure public safety and quality of life for all that live, work and play in the 15th District.

She has received numerous awards which include the Rosa Parks Award from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; the Bold Vision Award from the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce; the Public Service Award from the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Recognition Award from the Harbor Area Gang Alternative Program and enshrinement on the Promenade of Prominence in Watts.

Councilwoman Hahn, 58 years old, is a Democrat and resides in San Pedro, a Los Angeles community in the 36th Congressional district. Hahn's public service runs in the family: her father is former Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, and her brother is former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn. Councilwoman Janice Hahn was the Democratic nominee for the 36th Congressional District in 1998, when Congresswoman Jane Harman left office to run for Governor. She has three children, Danny, Mark and Katy as well as five grandchildren McKenna, Brooklyn, Isabela, Josiah and Luke.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: June 7, 2011 12:18
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