Harriet Spanel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section relies largely or entirely upon a single source.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations of additional sources.

Harriet A. Spanel is a Washington State Senator (Democrat) for the 40th District, which includes San Juan, northwestern Skagit and southwestern Whatcom counties. She is the Majority Caucus Chair.

She is a member of Financial Institutions, Housing & Consumer Protection, Natural Resources, Ocean & Recreation, Transportation, and Rules committees.

Spanel was born and raised on an Iowa farm; she earned a B.S. in Mathematics from Iowa State University. She is a longtime activist in local and state issues and is involved in a wide variety of organizations including the League of Women Voters.

She has lived in Bellingham since 1968 and has three grown children.

In 1994, she ran for the open Congressional seat, but lost by a 55%-45% margin against the eventual winner Jack Metcalf. Harriet Spanel routinely wins re-election to her Senate seat with little difficulty.^{[citation needed]}