Former Tauscher representative, weapons negotiator and revolutionary worker on Wall Street, dies at age 67

LOS ANGELES – The former California representative, Ellen O. Kane Tauscher – a centrist Democrat whose career led her from the New York Stock Exchange to Congress, and then to the negotiation of major international treaties on nuclear weapons for the Obama administration – died Monday of complications related to pneumonia at Stanford University Medical Center. She was 67 years old.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, her longtime friend – and for whom Tauscher served as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs – lamented the loss of Tauscher which she called "brilliant politician … one of the most effective". and accomplished officials I have never known. "

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In an interview on Tuesday, Clinton told POLITICO that she was using Tauscher's business and political sense to lead tough negotiations with the Russians on arms control, and that Tauscher had become "the most important person." to bring us to the negotiation of the new START treaty. " Acting from what was then the first major agreement signed with Russia for more than two decades, Clinton said that the former congressman had shown an unusual understanding of "politics". as well as technology …. In my opinion, this would not have happened without it. "

Tauscher, born in Newark, New Jersey, was the eldest of four children in an Irish Catholic family headed by her mother, Sally, secretary, and her father, John, grocery manager. After graduating from Early Childhood Education at Seton Hall University, she became one of the first and youngest women – at the age of 25 – to sit on the New York stock exchange. She then served as an officer for the American Stock Exchange.

She married businessman William Tauscher – whom she later divorced – and had a daughter, Katherine. After moving to California in 1989, Tauscher – a workplace mother frustrated at not being able to find good child care – is the author of the Childcare Sourcebook and created the first national research service to help parents check the antecedents of the educators.

But she developed a keen interest in politics, became a fundraiser and then successfully chaired the first two campaigns of the US Senate of her good friend Dianne Feinstein, in 1992 and in 1994. Feinstein said Tuesday in a statement that "when Ellen had politics, she was a force."

In 1996, she was trying herself in Congress in the 10th Congressional District of California – a long-time Republican-dominated suburb of East Bay – as part of what was considered a long-running candidacy. "A former securities broker and businesswoman, she looked like a Rockefeller Republican at first sight," Time Magazine said. Her husband was actually a Republican. In 1996, Tauscher hired a practicing Republican, attacked him for opposing abortion and gun control, and won a congressional seat. "

Tauscher won the seat of Republican Bill Baker in what became the country's fourth most expensive race that year – with political observers suggesting his winning argument to Republican women, who rented it "fiscally moderate, socially responsible" profile, was a key.

The centrist political mark favorable to the companies of Tauscher, nicknamed "tauschérisme, "Strengthened its national profile as the key voice of moderate Democrats over seven congressional mandates and leader of the 60-member House New Democrat coalition.

But his centrist views regularly put him in open conflict with the left wing of the party. In 2006, the progressive blog Daily Kos promised to find a first Democratic opponent in Tauscher after publicly urging members of his party not to jump from a "left cliff" after the party took control of bedroom.

Clinton recalled that Tauscher possessed a brilliant political talent for being able to "put order in the needle" between progressives and centrist members of the House, and bringing the two sides together.

"It's harder and harder to explain to people how to govern our noisy country and find common ground – and she was an expert in this area," Clinton said. "Nancy [Pelosi] I said that whenever there was something difficult to settle in Congress, she always chaired by Ellen. "

As the only congressman with two national laboratories in his district – the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Sandia National Laboratory in California – Tauscher chaired the Strategic Forces Committee Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. oversee the country's nuclear weapons stock. , missile defense program and national laboratories.

The former California governor, Jerry Brown, who asked Tauscher to chair his military council, told POLITICO by e-mail that "Ellen was a friend, a great personality and a real force on the critical issues that affect California – and the world. She will be sorely missed. "

Representative Eric Swalwell of California, presidential candidate of 2020 representing East Bay – and trainee at Tauscher's congressional office – told POLITICO in a statement: "I would not be where I am, nor who I am, otherwise for Ellen Tauscher. ' "

"When I entered his office as a trainee in 2001, I was a college athlete who did not know what I wanted to do with my life," he said. "The example she gave with her public service, her leadership and her character has inspired me to think beyond my own goals and set goals to help others …. She has again and again broke the mold. "

As Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Tauscher managed the State Department's interactions with the Pentagon and oversaw three offices of more than 600 foreign service agents; she also represented the United States at the United Nations Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May 2010, which resulted in what was widely hailed as the first consensus agreement reached ten years.

The "New Beginning" treaty was signed by Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev on April 8, 2010, while Tauscher – even though she was suffering the devastating effects of esophageal cancer treatment at Stage 3 – continued to provide the Secretary of State Strategy and Policy Advice his hospital bed, Clinton told POLITICO. "As she fought for her life," Clinton recalled, "she was fighting to save lives from nuclear attacks around the world."

After three years in the State Department under Clinton, Tauscher was the main substitute for the campaign for the former Secretary of State, her close friend, in the 2016 presidential race.

Even after leaving public life, Tauscher "continued to do all that was amazing … to negotiate an agreement between garment makers and Bangladeshi workers to create better treatment after the terrible fires that killed so many people." workers in textile factories. , & # 39; & # 39; Clinton told POLITICO. "She worked with the University of California to make sure their national labs worked efficiently. she continued to tackle difficult problems and continue to focus. "

Tauscher retired from the public service, but has also remained active on a number of important boards and commissions, including serving as Chair of the Military Advisory Board of Governor Jerry Brown, Chair of the Board of Governors of Livermore and Los Alamos Laboratories, and Regent of the University of California.

She has also held a variety of positions on the boards of not-for-profit public sector companies and non-profit organizations, including the boards of directors of Edison International /. Southern California Edison and Mt. View, eHealth based on CA. She has been a member of SpaceX's Board of Advisors, the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc., NTI and the Atlantic Council Executive Committee, and Vice-President of the Center on Security. Brent Scowcroft International Council of the Atlantic.

After her cancer diagnosis in 2010, she also became a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, then president of the organization, which advocates for faster detection and treatment of the disease.

"Bad things happen to everyone" Tauscher later told the East Bay Times.. "I did not think that what had happened to me was the worst thing, nor did I regard it as something that could defeat me. It was a retarder in my life. "

Her family said she died Monday in Stanford, surrounded by her daughter Katherine and family, after a long bout of pneumonia.

In a statement, the family said Tauscher "made a difference in the lives of her neighbors and the complete strangers who trusted Ellen for their votes and their future, and she never let them down. Ellen's legacy in life is made so much better, even safer, even safer in East Bay, California, the United States, and around the world. "

The details of the memorial services have not been announced yet.