St. Augustine's Schale leads Obama's state campaign

St. Augustine's Schale leads Obama's state campaign



By BETH REINHARD
The Miami Herald
Publication Date: 07/05/08


Don't let St. Augustine native Steve Schale fool you, just because he looks like the kid who won the spelling bee, in wire-rimmed glasses and rumpled khakis. Or because Tallahassee is the biggest city he's ever lived in. Or because he lists Eagle Scout on his rsum.

1Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Florida, Schale may be the savviest Democratic operative in the state.

He helped his beleaguered party do something it hadn't done in more than 20 years: pick up a seat in the Florida House of Representatives. Under his steady hand, Democrats netted nine seats in the past two years.

Statewide, the latest polls show Obama with a slight edge over Republican John McCain, foreshadowing a knockdown, drag-out fight in the nation's largest battleground state. The Republican Party has already begun trying to undermine Obama among the state's Hispanic and Jewish voters, and it's easy to picture attack ads questioning his stated willingness to meet with hostile governments in Cuba and Iran.

Schale, 33, is a Southern gentleman who hasn't been in the trenches for very long. But he'll likely have more money, staff and volunteers at his disposal than McCain's team ''the largest and most comprehensive organization that my side of the aisle has ever seen in Florida,'' he said. His allies warn: Don't let the nice-guy demeanor fool you.

"Steve does best when people take him for granted,'' said former state Rep. Doug Wiles of St. Augustine, who gave Schale his first job in politics. "I would never want to be on the other side of him in a campaign. He's very competitive, very focused and very driven.''

Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans in Florida, but the state has voted only twice for the Democrat in a presidential race since 1976. Partly to blame: clumsy coordination with the presidential campaigns and a second-rate operation of turning out voters and absentee ballots. The man who ran John Kerry's 2004 campaign was chief of staff to New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine and had never run a race in Florida.

In contrast, Schale is the resident scholar of the Florida Democratic Party. A Southerner from St. Augustine, Schale has spent his entire career helping Democratic candidates, from a sixth-generation farmer outside of Gainesville to a retired firefighter in Little Havana, run against the Republican tide.

Call Schale up in the middle of the night and no doubt he could rattle off voting trends in Okaloosa County.

"There's no cooler place to work in politics than Florida,'' Schale said. "The mosaic of the state is as rich as it could possibly be.''

Schale was born in Kankakee, a small farming town south of Chicago. His family moved to St. Augustine when he was nearly 10, and he later became familiar with the uniform required at the high school run by the Episcopal diocese: blue shirt, red tie, khaki pants.

He went on to major in history and political science at the University of the South in Sewannee, Tenn., an Episcopal college and bastion of southern intellectualism. Schale's grades earned him a spot in the university's prestigious honor society, the Order of the Gown Society, and a black gown that belonged to a 1948 graduate.

Schale thought of pursuing an academic career like many of his colleagues. But two weeks after graduation in 1996, he was introduced to Wiles, a Democratic candidate in a Republican-leaning district, and decided to ''show up every day.'' Schale also ran his stepfather's campaign for the St. John's County Airport Authority that year, boosting his win-loss record at age 21 to 2-0.

That was the year the GOP took over the Florida House, and Schale has toiled in the minority ever since. The inroads he helped the party make over the past two years have earned him respect in Tallahassee political circles but not the trappings of success; he drives a 1999 Toyota Camry with 164,000 miles on it.

"He's the kind of guy that I'd probably be friends with,'' said Chip Case, a Republican Party strategist who has run races against Schale's House candidates. ``His reputation is that he's a hard worker and a smart campaigner, not a spinmeister. He's the Boy Scout of the Democratic campaign machine.''

He's also a man of faith who says he cherishes the teachings of Jesus Christ: loving thy neighbor, tending to the poor and the sick, turning the other cheek. Schale is a big admirer of Jim Wallis, a nationally recognized evangelical who writes about peace and social justice. House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber calls Schale a ``principled warrior.''

Schale has also lamented the Democratic Party's tendency to give short shrift to the rural parts of the state, which have favored the GOP in recent elections.

On Steve Schale

BORN: Sept. 29, 1974, in Kankakee, Ill.

EDUCATION: Candidate for master's degree in communications, Florida State University. Bachelor's degree, The University of the South, Sewannee, Tenn.

PROFESSIONAL: Florida director of Barack Obama campaign; Florida Democratic Party State Caucus director; former House Democratic Caucus communications director; former senior legislative assistant to former State Rep. Doug Wiles, D-St. Augustine.

PERSONAL: Lives in Tallahassee with his wife, Nikole Souder-Schale, southeastern regional vice president for advocacy for the American Heart Association.


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