Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel (born November 29 1959), a former professional ballet dancer and current American politician, has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing the 5th Congressional District of Illinois (map (http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/il05_109.gif)), which covers the northside of Chicago and parts of Cook County. He was born in Chicago and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981 and received a Master's Degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985. While still a student at Sarah Lawrence College, he joined the congressional campaign of David Robinson of Chicago.

For a time Emanuel worked as a professional ballet dancer, and then became a backroom political staffer specializing in fundraising initially in Illinois campaigns and then nationally. He joined then Governor Bill Clinton's presidential primary campaign in 1991.

Emanuel insisted that Clinton schedule a lot of time to fundraising rather than campaigning in New Hampshire. After much dispute within the campaign about the issue, Clinton evenutally agreed, embarking on an aggressive fundraising campaign across the nation. The fundraising paid off later, providing the campaign a vital buffer to keep buying television time as attacks on character issues threatened to swamp Clinton's campaign during the New Hampshire campaign. Clinton's most serious primary rival Paul Tsongas later withdrew citing a lack of campaign funds.

Following the campaign, Emanuel became a senior advisor to Bill Clinton at the White House (1993-1998). He left the White House to accept a well-paid position in investment banking at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Chicago where he worked from 1999-2002.

He also volunteered at an Israeli Defense Forces supply base during the Gulf War, which prompted anti-semites and conspiracy theorists to accuse him of being a Mossad spy in the White House. In his first Congressional primary campaign which was a nasty battle over the prize Democrat seat, the president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting Emanuel's main rival, falsely claimed that he was secretly Israeli citizen and served in the Israeli army. He also called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing" about "our heritage."

In the White House, he was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy. He was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts to institute universal healthcare and many other Clinton initiatives.

Emanuel began his career with the consumer rights organization Illinois Public Action. He went on to serve in a number of capacities in local and national politics, including liberal Democrat Paul Simon’s 1984 election to the U.S. Senate, national campaign director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1988, and senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley’s victorious campaign for mayor of Chicago in 1989. He served as Director of Finance in the 1992 Presidential campaign of then-Governor Bill Clinton.

Emanuel was named the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2005. Prior to his work for Clinton, he had been employed at the same Committee. His role at the DCCC is leading fundraising efforts to support the Democrats strategy to improve its poor level of representation in the Congress, it has been in the minority in the House since 1994. He has declared that in his new role "winning is everything." The Committee's role is principally that of recruiting good candidates for the House and Senate and raising funds to assist new candidates and incumbents from the Democratic party.

Nicknamed "Rahmbo", the Congressman is well known for aggression and great intensity. He notoriously sent a rotting fish to a pollster who he believed sent inaccurate and poorly prepared research to him while working at the DCCC. He is believed to be focusing on un-seating House Majority Leader conservative Republican Tom DeLay.

He represents Chicago's north side, formerly the district of famous Democrat and felon Dan Rostenkowski. Like Rostenkowski, Emanuel serves on the House Ways and Means Committee. He received 78% of the vote in the Democratic stronghold in the last election.

He has maintained a 100% pro-choice voting record and generally supports liberal Democrat positions in the House. The character Josh Lyman in the West Wing television series is loosely based on Emanuel.

Emanuel and his wife Amy have three children, Zacharias, Ilana and Leah live in the north side of Chicago. His father, a pediatrician still practicing near Chicago, immigrated to the United States from Israel and spoke Hebrew with his son, when Emanuel was a boy. Emanuel, whose first name, Rahm, means "high" or "lofty" in Hebrew, and his wife are active members of a modern Orthodox congregation, Anshe Shalom B’nai Israel, in Chicago.

External link

• Official website (http://www.house.gov/emanuel/)