10 things about Diane Farrell
1. She was born in August 1955 in New Rochelle, N. Y..
2. Her father, Donald, was an advertising executive, her mother, Lillian, an elementary school teacher. Farrell is the oldest of four children.
3. She moved to Westport, Conn., at the age of 3, where she attended public schools before attending the Northfield Mount Hermon boarding school in Massachusetts.
4. The Watergate hearings sparked her interest in politics. She majored in American government and minored in elementary education at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, graduating in 1977.
5. She is married to Winslow Farrell Jr., and they have two children: Hilary, 23, and Margaret, 19.
6. Early in her career, she was a preschool teacher. She then worked as a media planner, and later as an account executive with an advertising agency.
7. In 1997, with 59 percent of the vote, she was elected as the first selectwoman of Westport, Conn. She was re-elected in 2001, with a 71 percent of the vote. She had also served as an elected member of the Westport Board of Finance.
8. She made her first run for Congress in 2004.
9. With almost 48 percent of the vote, Farrell lost to Rep. Chris Shays, whom she faces this year in a rematch.
10. She would be the first Democrat elected to that congressional seat since 1969.
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