Leah Israel, the openly lesbian finance director for Tammy Duckworth's congressional campaign in the 8th District of Illinois, is no stranger to political campaigns or politics. At 28, Israel has spent the bulk of her post-collegiate life in the political realm working on campaigns in both Wisconsin and Illinois.
Israel, a native of Highland Park, graduated from the University of Iowa with a major in English and a minor in political science. Before attending school in Iowa, Israel was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While there, she started volunteering for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign.
Volunteering for Dean's campaign motivated Israel to switch her minor to political science and to get involved with politics. Being openly gay and living in Madison changed the direction of her life.
Working for Duckworth's campaign is the latest in a career working for Democrats and democratic causes.
"When I graduated from college in 2006, my first job out of school was for an issue-based campaign called Fair Wisconsin, which was trying to stop the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions," said Israel. "I counted myself very lucky to work on this campaign because I felt so passionate about what I was doing, despite the long hours and fast-paced environment … especially as I watched a lot of my friends go into 9-to-5 jobs they were unhappy in."
Israel was responsible for educating college students at campuses in Wisconsin on the proposed ban. Although the ban passed, working on that campaign inspired and reassured her that politics was a career that was worth pursuing.
Following the Fair Wisconsin campaign, Israel moved back to Illinois and interviewed with Nancy Kohn, president of Nancy Kohn Consulting (her firm does political fundraising and strategizing for senatorial races). Kohn hired her and she started at the bottom of the totem pole. Israel was with Kohn's consulting firm for almost four years; through Sen. Dick Durbin's 2008 re-election, Sen. Al Franken's campaign in Minnesota, Sen. Jay Rockefeller's re-election in West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen's Senate race in New Hampshire and several others.
Speaking about Kohn, Israel said, "Nancy has been my mentor and means the world to me. She did a great job teaching me the business, particularly how instrumental and necessary political fundraising is. I credit Nancy for where I am now."
During the 2010 election cycle Israel moved on to become the finance director for the Illinois Democratic Coordinated Campaign. There, she had her first glance at how to deal with campaigns from the top of the ticket to the bottom. Israel said their biggest focus was the Illinois senate and gubernatorial races, however, they did work on the four targeted congressional races in Illinois: Melissa Bean, Phil Hare, Debbie Halvorson and Dan Seals as well as statewide races.
After the 2010 election was done, Israel moved on to Duckworth's campaign after Kohn recommended her for the job. That is how she became Duckworth's finance director. "It is very important to me that I work for a candidate who shares the same values as I do," Israel said.
The 8th District, where Duckworth hopes to win a Congressional seat, covers much of the Northwest suburbs and a small slice of Chicago's Northwest Side. Suburbs in the district include South Barrington, Hoffman Estates, Streamwood, Schaumburg, Hanover Park, Roselle, Bloomingdale, Addison, Elmhurst, Villa Park, Rolling Meadows, Elgin, Mount Prospect, Elk Grove Village and Des Plaines.
As finance director, Israel has many tasks including developing a finance plan and working with the campaign manager to figure out how much money needs to be raised for the primary and the general election, should Duckworth win her primary. Israel doesn't have a typical day. She spends many hours dealing with spread sheets, planning events, answering emails and talking to donors to raise more money and hear their ideas for the campaign, so she can put together events that will be the most effective for the campaign and most accurately reflect who Duckworth is.
Israel said working with Duckworth has been a unique experience and she is learning more and more every day.
"I am more and more inspired by Tammy every day," she said. "Having a disability, let alone having had both her legs blown off, wheelchair accessibility has never been an issue I was too familiar with until I got involved with Tammy's campaign. Now every time I go somewhere I am very conscientious of whether or not a place is accessible and I am consistently disgusted by how few places, especially in Chicago, are fully accessible. Tammy could easily live off of her veteran benefits, but instead, wants to run for Congress so she can make a difference, and I enormously respect that. I know she will be an effective congresswoman," said Israel.
"Part of why I work for Tammy is because she will be a great congresswoman for the LGBT community. ... There are very few elected officials and candidates out there, regardless of what they internally believe, who actually make movements and strides for LGBT equality. I know Tammy will be an advocate for the LGBT community and that gives me a lot of joy," said Israel.
As for the future, Israel said, "I think that if you have politics in your blood, you are incapable of thinking about the future. I won't know what I am doing until next November, but I know it will be something exciting."
See www.tammyduckworth.com .
