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November 12, 2004/Cheshvan 28 5765, Vol. 57, No. 11
Debbie Schultz seen as rising star
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - When Debbie Wasserman Schultz first walked into the Florida House of Representatives as a legislator, she was 26 and most of her colleagues were old enough to be her parents and grandparents.
In January, when she walks into the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, she likely will be in the same boat. But she's excited about it.
"You just have to go into the room knowing you were elected the same way they were," Wasserman Schultz, 38, told JTA. "It's important to prove yourself, that you're an equal."
Shortly after being elected to Congress on Nov. 2, Wasser-man Schultz was sitting in an Orlando hotel room, ready to go to Walt Disney World with her young children, a well-earned vacation after a long year of campaigning.
Amid the screaming of twin 4-year-olds, the congresswo-man-elect spoke of her rise in 12 years from a legislative aide in the Florida House of Representatives to a seat in Congress. It began with a call from her mentor, Peter Deutsch, then Wasserman Schultz' boss, who was giving up his state house seat to run for Congress.
"It was really amazing," she said. "He called me at home one day in the middle of the legislative session and he said, 'You could run in my race, your house is in my district.'"
The thought may not have crossed her mind before, since she had lived in the district for only three years. But people already had seen her political spark.
"She has a gift for politics," said Deutsch, whose seat Wasserman Schultz will fill in Washington. Deutsch left the House earlier this year to run for Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary.
"She has an understanding of the political dynamics but also has a passion for being a really strong advocate and shaping policy," he said.
In 1988, she started working for Deutsch, eventually becoming his chief of staff, while commuting to Gaines-ville to get her master's degree in political campaigning.
After Deutsch suggested that Wasserman Schultz follow in his footsteps in 1992, the newlywed worked with her husband to figure out if they could afford a run for the state house. She then started an aggressive campaign, going door-to-door through southern Florida's retirement condo-minium communities.
"I tried to make up in shoe leather what I didn't have in money," she said. She made an impression on the voters.
"It helped, frankly, that the district she won in has a large Jewish population," said her father, Larry Wasserman. "A lot of the elderly Jewish people who live in her district treat her like she's their grand-daughter."
Wasserman Schultz won 53 percent of the vote in a six-way Democratic primary that year, avoiding a runoff, and became the youngest woman to sit in the House. She served for eight years, before leaving office due to term limits, and joined the State Senate in 2000.
This year, Wasserman Schultz's campaign focused on homeland security, health care, funding federal education programs and shrinking the nation's deficit. She won 70 percent of the vote to defeat Margaret Hostetter.
Her father said Wasserman Schultz has forged ties with Jewish groups as a lawmaker. She helped to form the National Jewish Democratic Council and served on the regional board of the American Jewish Congress.
Those she leaves behind in Florida say she has shown an ability to compromise with Republicans, while fighting hard for her issues.
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