Candidate for
State Senator; District 40

Biography

Senator Ducheny

Denise Moreno Ducheny was elected to the California State Senate on November 5, 2002, to represent the 40th District. The district incorporates portions of San Diego and Riverside Counties and all of Imperial County. Senator Ducheny Chairs the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services and is Vice Chair of the Committee on Agriculture. She also serves on Transportation and Housing, Government Modernization, Efficiency and Accountability, and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Senator Ducheny chairs the Senate Select Committees on California-Mexico Cooperation, the Colorado River and Oversight of UC Energy Labs, and serves on several other select committees. Senator Ducheny served as Chair of the Senate Committee on Housing and Community Development from 2002 to 2004.

Prior to her election to the California State Senate, Senator Ducheny served in the California State Assembly from 1994 to 2000. While in the Assembly, Senator Ducheny served as Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee between 1997 and 2000, and as Vice-Chair in 1996. As an Assemblywoman, she was the first San Diegan, first woman, and first Latino ever to be appointed to this powerful position overseeing the state's $100 billion spending plan. As a legislator, she also served, as Chair of the Select Committee on California-Mexico Affairs, as Co-Chair of the Special Committee on Welfare Reform, as Vice-Chair of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, and as Vice-Chair of the Latino Legislative Caucus.

While in the Assembly, Senator Ducheny served in numerous committees and authored landmark legislation, including the CAL Works Welfare Reform Act of 1997, which assisted many in the transition from welfare to work; the College Affordability Act, which rolled back student fees at the UC, CSU, and Community Colleges for the first time in 13 years; the Reverse Mortgage bill, which provided protection to senior homeowners and consumers; the California Public School Library Act, which provided an additional funding source for school libraries; the Indian Child Welfare Act; the California development certificate to teach K-12 students; and legislation regarding vacant residential structures, which enabled local government to rehabilitate vacant dwellings to improve the quality of life in their communities.

As a legislator in both houses, Senator Ducheny has worked diligently to improve California's bi-national relationship with the Republic of Mexico by coordinating various agriculture, water and business tours with U.S. and Mexican officials, conducting several border meetings to discuss cross-border business, transportation, education and health issues, and working with federal elected and administrative officials to further enhance our cooperative relationships, including the establishment of a permanent Office of Binational Border Health to facilitate cooperation between health officials and health professionals in California and Mexico and to reduce the risk of disease in the border region. She also spearheaded organization of the Border Legislative Forum, comprised of legislators of the 10 U.S.-Mexico Border States, and the Legislative Forum of the Three Californias.

Ms. Ducheny was born in Southern California, where she attended public high school and received a four-year scholarship from Twentieth-Century Fox Film Corporation to attend Pomona College. While in college she studied Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History. She went on to study economic history at the University of Lund, Sweden.

While attending the Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, Ms. Ducheny served as student director of the Southwestern Clinical Law Center. She has been practicing law in South San Diego since 1979, when she earned her Juris Doctor and was admitted to the California State Bar.

Senator Ducheny previously served as an elected trustee of the governing board of the San Diego Community College District, as a member of the board of directors of the California Community College Trustees Association, and as Founder and Chair of the Association of Latino Community College Trustees. From 2000 to 2002, Senator Ducheny served as a Presidential Fellow at San Diego State University, Board Member of the San Diego Natural History Museum, Trustee of the Anza-Borrego State Park Foundation, Commissioner for the State Commission of the Californias, Commissioner for the San Diego County Regional Governance Efficiency Commission and member of the California Border Environmental Cooperation Commission.

Denise Moreno Ducheny has been married to Al Ducheny, a political consultant and community activist in San Diego since 1980.