Jane Corwin

Jane Lewis Corwin (born February 29, 1964) is an American politician and businesswoman who currently serves a Commissioner of the International Joint Commission for United States and Canada.

Corwin has stressed she did not grow up wealthy, noting that in the 1980s, her family almost lost their home.

She began college at the private Ithaca College and had to transfer to the State University of New York at Albany because of cost concerns.

She earned a B.A. degree in psychology from SUNY in 1985, and then attended Pace University earning an M.B.A. in finance in 1990.

She worked on Wall Street from 1987 to 1990 as a research director for Henry Ansbacher, Inc., a British financial firm that helped large media conglomerates acquire small, locally owned newspapers.

She also served on the board of directors of the Talking Phone Book as Secretary-Treasurer beginning in 1987, making strategic decisions for the company.

After completing her education in 1990, she returned to Western New York State to marry Philip M. Corwin II whom she had met in graduate school.

The couple worked at The Talking Phone Book with Philip serving as chief financial officer.

She also began a family, and has said of this time, "I didn't go into the office every day ... We had more board discussions over the kitchen table than the board room."

The business was sold to Hearst Corporation in 2004 for $400 million, making Corwin and her siblings wealthy, according to the Buffalo News.

Campaign disclosure forms have indicated Corwin's personal assets is between $58 and $158 million, mainly derived from her family's business.

Since 2004, Corwin has been President of the Philip M. and Jane Lewis Corwin Foundation to provide direct funding to educational, medical and religious charities that benefit children.

A review of the foundation's financials by the Buffalo News indicated that more than half of its distributions have gone to Boston College, Philip Corwin's alma mater; the second largest recipient has been a school the Corwin children attended.

In recent years, she has given $500 college scholarships to local public high school students, and has indicated she has not taken any tax benefits for her donations.

She has also been a community volunteer, serving as president of a committee of the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo, as confirmation leader at her church, and as a member of a committee of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

She served on the board of directors of Brookfield Country Club Women's Association and became a private sector protégé of Erie County Executive Christopher Collins serving as an assistant treasurer for his campaign from 2007 to 2008, according to the Buffalo News.

Corwin has said she entered politics in 2008 because she "could not stand idly by and watch state government spend away our children's future."

During her first campaign for the Assembly, she said the State needed to adopt a business-like approach, cut spending, cut taxes, end "unfunded mandates" and improve the business environment.

Corwin went on to defeat Working Families Party candidate Jeffrey Bono in the November 2008 general election, receiving 89 percent of the vote.

She previously served as a Republican Party member of the New York State Assembly from 2009 to 2016.

Based on her Assembly voting record on fiscal matters, the state Conservative Party placed her near the top in its 2009 and 2010 annual rankings of Assembly members.

She ran uncontested in the November 2010 general election, receiving endorsements from the Conservative and Independence parties of New York State.

While in the State Assembly, Corwin was appointed chair of the Assembly Minority Manufacturing Task Force and became ranking minority member of the Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee.

She opposed a bill that would legalize gay marriage.

She also opposed a loosening of state drug laws that would reduce long prison terms and give judges more leeway in sentencing, and voted "no" on a bill that required the unshackling of prisoners while giving birth.

Corwin said that if elected, she would work to cut federal government spending, reduce taxes and repeal the health care overhaul that was enacted by the Democratic majority Congress in 2010.

She signed a tax pledge, promising to oppose all efforts to increase marginal tax rates on individuals and businesses, and to oppose reductions of tax credits or deductions that are not matched by reductions in tax rates.

Corwin was also the Republican Party nominee in the special election held on May 24, 2011, to fill Western New York's 26th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives previously held by Republican Chris Lee.

She faced three other candidates in the election; losing to Democrat Kathy Hochul 47 percent to 42 percent.

Before entering politics, Corwin was on the board of directors of the family business, and worked at a financial firm while earning her master's degree in business administration.

In February 2011, U.S. Representative Chris Lee resigned abruptly after reports surfaced that he had been flirting with a woman on Craigslist.

Later that month, Corwin was unanimously chosen by Republican Party leaders to be the Party's nominee in the special election to fill the seat.

(State law does not provide for primary elections prior to special elections.) Corwin also received the endorsements of the New York Conservative Party and the Independence Party of New York.

She vied for the congressional seat against local businessman Jack Davis, an independent candidate running on the Tea Party ballot line; Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul, a Democrat; and writer Ian Murphy the Green Party candidate.

The election was held on May 24.

She represented the 144th Assembly District which covers parts of Erie and Niagara counties.

She won the primary for the 142nd Assembly District seat against three other Republican candidates including incumbent Assemblyman Mike Cole, who had the Republican party endorsement, but who had been censured for fraternizing with an intern one year earlier.

In 2019, she was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the International Joint Commission for United States and Canada.

Corwin has said she spent 36 years working in the private sector, beginning her business career at age eight by delivering phone books for The Talking Phone Book, the family business that had been founded by her father, Wilbur Lewis, a former salesman.

During her teen years, she proof-read the company's publications, and while in college, she was vice president of marketing.