Washington Watch for May 18

• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: May 18, 2008 - Page: 7B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

As the daughter of a union officer dad and a mother who travels the world fighting AIDS, Katie Nee knew she wanted to be in public service. What she didn’t know is that it would make her — at 26 — one of the youngest chiefs of staff on Capitol Hill.

Chief aide to U.S. Rep. Don Cazayoux, D-New Roads, Nee orchestrated his upset victory earlier this month as his campaign manager. Despite her age, Nee is a battle-tested political veteran who brought her experience fighting in the campaign trenches of America to Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District and emerged victorious.

That wasn’t always the case. The middle child of three grew up in Providence, R.I., and attended the University of Virginia to study government. At the suggestion of a friend, 21-year-old Nee joined the 2003 presidential campaign of former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.

Nee was one of Gephardt’s foot soldiers in an Iowa caucus that he soundly lost, finishing fourth and derailing his presidential ambitions.

Nee worked long hours and roomed with a squad of fellow canvassers in a tiny apartment but came to an important conclusion: She loved it.

“I didn’t want to lose but I enjoyed it and knew it was what I wanted to do,” Nee said.

Now part of the campaign world, Nee got word that an Arizona Democrat was trying to win in a Republican district in Arizona. Paul Babbitt, brother of former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, came up short in the conservative region where Nee found herself roaming a Navajo Indian reservation and cattle ranches seeking votes.

Most importantly, though, her work — now as a field director — helped her learn the political end game of television, campaign advertising, polling and fundraising.

“You learn a lot from losing,” Nee said. “You think of a million things that you would’ve done differently.”

Back in Washington, Nee once again received a call from the battlefront, this time to be a campaign manager. An Indiana Democrat was running against a Republican incumbent. U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., ended up winning the race by 8 percentage points.
After that race, Nee returned to Washington, waiting for the next call.

This time it came from the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a new entity in Washington created to help Democrats win a majority in state legislatures. Nee was dispatched to Louisiana in 2007.

Winning Democratic seats in Louisiana was deemed critical because term limits were chasing members out of the Legislature. During the campaigns, Nee met Cazayoux, who was running to become House Speaker.

“That didn’t happen, thank goodness,” Nee said. “Because (if it had) this wouldn’t have happened.”