In 2004, Assemblywoman Cohn, D-Saratoga, will seek the state Senate seat representing the 15th district. Currently Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, represents Senate District 15, which covers a small portion of Santa Clara County, including Saratoga, and all of Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.

Senate District 15 "needs a steward that will protect that area at all cost," said the 48-year-old Cohn, who added that she is known as an "absolute workhorse in the Assembly."

"I can't predict everything, but I can predict one thing: No one is going to work harder than me on this campaign," she said.

Health care affordability and accessibility, funding for K-12 education and the issue of domestic violence will continue to be key items on Cohn's agenda, who ran on a similar platform when elected to the Assembly in November 2000. Her term as an Assemblywoman won't be up until 2006.

Saratoga City Councilwoman Kathleen King, who met Cohn through her involvement with the Silicon Valley Children's Hospital, said she supports Cohn's run for the Senate because Cohn is an environmentalist and advocate of health care.

As the legislator representing Assembly District 24, Cohn is the voice for Californians living in Saratoga, Campbell and parts of Los Gatos, Cupertino, Santa Clara and San Jose. Recently she was seen at the Mustard Walk in Saratoga and toured the city's new library, which is under construction.

Saratoga Vice Mayor Ann Waltonsmith, who supported Cohn's run for the Assembly, said she would like to support her again in her bid for the Senate seat.

Cohn "got off on a rocky start with us because of the West Valley College issue, but over time she's moved on from that," the vice mayor said, referring to the city council's stance against the college's efforts to build a football stadium. After the council approached Cohn to support their views on the issue, "she began to support the other side," Waltonsmith said.

"She thought she could be of help to both sides when we were so acrimonious with West Valley, but that issue is over ... we've moved on from that. We both need each other," Waltonsmith said.

A move to the Senate would allow Cohn to continue the work she's begun as an Assembly member and to impact policy over the next decade, she said. Such long-term investment in the Legislature is necessary for the state to resolve some of its problems, she said.

Since taking office in the Assembly in 2000, Cohn has seen all 18 pieces of legislation that she authored signed by Gov. Gray Davis. Her tenure as chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care her first year in office made her one of only two freshman Assembly members to head a standing committee.

Cohn is also a member of the Assembly Committee on Health and chairs four committees—the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media; Assembly Select Committee on the Future of Health Care in California; Assembly Select Committee on Domestic Violence; and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Before entering politics, Cohn worked for more than 20 years as a physical therapist, specializing in pediatrics, the elderly and injured workers, and spent close to another decade as an international business consultant.

Born in California and raised in Texas along with her four brothers, Cohn earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Texas in 1976.