Who Is Leecia Eve?

First time I am coming across her name.

I opened up the Google News page to do a quick search on the Russian guy at Google, Sergei Brin, because a few days back he came out saying Google is not working on an Office competitor which can read like a direct rebuttal to one of my recent blog entries (Google's To Do List Keeps Growing), but then I got distracted.

Can She Be New York's Barack Obama? New York Daily News

I immediately fired off a teaser email to our own DFNYC Leila Warrior Noor, even before I read the news article. Because one of the first thoughts that occurred to me after I met her was that
she meets the Barack Obama profile. He father was Somalian. (Me, Ethiopian) Her mother is Long Island white. Leila is a lawyer. I know, those corporate types. She is cute. She is political, hence the nickname Warrior. She speaks effortlessly. That is how I described Obama after I watched an Obama-Keyes debate on TV. And at the last event I met Leila, I heard Norman Siegel (A Not So Little Norman Fact, A Great Mixer, A Little Siegel Incident) telling her he thought she should run for office. "I don't feel like I know enough."

That is the standard reply of all the power women at DFNYC. Razzmatazz Tracey, Sunshine Heather. (DFNYC In The News, Tracey Denton Of DFNYC) All these amazing people who have this amazing organization going. When women lead things are different. The leadership style is different: these is a much lesser tendency towards hierarchies. The edges are smoother. Women and men are different, if anyone needs reminding. And there are these late 20s, early 30s women whose leadership is totally cool to members twice their age, and more. And not in a polite way either. And it is okay to not run for office. I myself don't see me doing it. Not that it is okay because I am not doing it either.

I have a formal excuse: I am not a citizen. So don't ask for my vote either! That aside, I feel like I can do more for global democracy through Dean 2008 than through any other endeavor. And global democracy is the best gift that can be for the dollar a day crowd, all those cheerful, poor people. Where would you rather be, on the Mall, or inside the White House? I am gunning for the White House, yo! JFK advice: "Never settle for second, when first is available." (2008: Some Themes, 2008: Some Thoughts, Dean 2008)

I mean, I so totally could. I have done it before, I can do it again. (Possibly Moving To NYC) But the question is what is your public service goal, and what is the most effective way to get there. Dean 2008 is it.

Running for office is like deciding to become a doctor, unless you really, really want to do it, don't do it: you are going to be unhappy. So I don't begrudge these power women comrades of mine. But I wish they were a little more militant on gender issues. Expand it beyond the pro-choice talk. How can you be a progressive if you are not aggresive on the gender issues?

Anyways, some from the article on Eve.

.... a four-year star turn as Hillary Clinton's lawyer
.... the bright, confident optimism of an A-student who studies hard and has all the answers.
.... the power pantsuits that are the standard uniform of Clinton's female protégés
.... 41-year-old
.... government and law degrees from Harvard
.... learned the retail side of politics at home: her father, retired Buffalo Assemblyman Arthur Eve, served in the state legislature for more than 30 years and took Leecia on the campaign trail every other year
.... political street smarts and book smarts
.... leaves a lot of time for lieutenant governors to grow bored, restless and ambitious - and that's where the trouble starts
.... In the 1980s, Lt. Gov. Alfred DelBello, who served under Gov. Mario Cuomo, quit after 24 months, citing boredom.
.... The A-student has already held private meetings with Krupsak, DelBello, Stan Lundine and Mario Cuomo, the four living Democrats who once held the position
.... to begin releasing position papers on ways to begin reversing the capital flight
.... thinks she can break the old patterns and become the first black woman ever elected to a statewide office in New York
.... Like Obama, she is betting voters will look past race and vote for a whip-smart candidate with a great smile and confidence to burn.

Come to think of it, Leila did allude to someone of this profile during my first real conversation with her. I now realize. She beat me to it.