POLITICAL PLAYER
The Gephardt campaign's secret weapon
By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff, 9/21/2003
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Richard Gephardt's presidential campaign thinks it has a secret weapon: his daughter Chrissy.
Chrissy Gephardt, who came out as a lesbian to her parents before she and her husband divorced 2 1/2 years ago, has been her father's ambassador to human services providers, the elderly, gays, and other groups.
The 30-year-old social worker is a petite version of her father, a 14-term Democratic congressman from Missouri.
Told she has some of his mannerisms, the younger Gephardt replied: "I kind of look like him too, don't I? With the high cheekbones, the pug nose, the fair hair, the fair skin."
Speaking at the Thomas B. O'Malley Apartments for the elderly, she touted her father's support for Medicare and Social Security.
"Other candidates want to -- quote -- slow the growth of these programs," Gephardt said, a veiled reference to Howard Dean, who, in 1995, voiced support for Republican efforts to do so.
In other campaign stops, she has promoted her father's support for gay civil unions and a plan to provide universal health care. Gephardt said her father "has come a long way" on gay rights issues in the past 10 years, though he doesn't agree with her yet on the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Chrissy Gephardt is a campaign surrogate, a relative who stands in when a candidate can't squeeze an event into the schedule.
Since June 1, when she left her job as a social worker in Washington, D.C., Gephardt has been campaigning full time for her father.
This is her second trip to New Hampshire, and she has been to Iowa, California, New York, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Future trips to Florida, Georgia, and possibly Michigan and Arizona are possible, she said.
She is no stranger to the Granite State. Gephardt has been a frequent guest at the Rye vacation home of the family of her partner, Amy Loder, who recently took a job with the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women.
Her parents have embraced Loder and their relationship, Gephardt said.
In campaign leaflets, they are pictured with her parents, younger sister Kate, older brother Matt, and his wife, Tricia, over the caption: "Dick and Jane Gephardt and their family."
Gephardt sees campaigning as a natural extension of her vocation, which at a Washington mental health agency involved counseling 22 women who were both mentally ill and substance abusers. She said she is simply following her father's example of serving others.
"That's why I love politics," Gephardt said. "It's like doing social work on a macro level; doing the hard work, fighting for people who don't have a voice."
She seems unfazed that her personal life is the subject of media scrutiny. "It makes it so much easier when you have the support of your family," Gephardt said.
"When my father said `I want you to work on my campaign,' " she said, "it was clear that it meant, `Be yourself, tell your story, and talk about who your are.' "
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