By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

Election: Defeated Rep. Marilyn Musgrave , R

Residence: Fort Collins

Born: April 27, 1956; Cresskill, N.J.

Religion: Roman Catholic

Family: Husband, Jim Kelly; three children

Education: U. of Florida, B.A. 1978 (political science); American U., M.P.A. 1983

Career: Congressional district director; ice cream and coffee shop owner; Web services company owner; U.S. State Department computer security director; college fundraising assistant

Political highlights: Larimer County Democratic Party chairwoman, 2002-05

Markey plans to chart a centrist course in Congress, with economic interests at the forefront of her agenda.

As a former business owner, “I always had to make sure that you didn’t spend more money than you made,” she says. She supports pay-as-you-go budget rules and vows to fight “pork-barrel spending” and to reduce earmarks. “Funding pet projects for your state is no way to run a government,” she says.

She is also familiar with “how difficult it is for small businesses to provide health insurance, how the costs go up by double-digit increases every year,” she says.

She supports raising the minimum wage and expanding the earned-income tax credit.

On immigration, she has called for securing the borders, and she opposes “amnesty,” although she also has called for “civility in the immigration discussion.”