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On the Fence and in the Spotlight
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Political activism is not new to Mizeur, who was raised in a blue-collar, Catholic family in Blue Mound, Ill., population 1,100. She recalls standing on picket lines with her factory-worker father and laboring in cornfields to pay her college tuition.
A history buff, Mizeur came to Washington in her 20s to be a Capitol Hill aide and worked for three representatives before becoming Kerry's domestic policy director.
She first met Barack Obama in July 2006 on the Senate subway, an encounter that would be replayed during this year's courtship.
Obama and Mizeur shared a political mentor, Penny Severns. Before dying of breast cancer, Severns represented Mizeur's home town in the Illinois state Senate and sat next to Obama when he arrived in Springfield.
On the subway, Mizeur told Obama, "My parents are your biggest fans. They still have your 2004 campaign sign in their yard."
Two weeks later, Mizeur's parents received a letter from Obama, who wrote to thank them for hanging onto the yard sign. Mizeur found Obama's letter thoughtful.
As the presidential campaign began, Mizeur decided her job as a DNC member was to stay neutral and support all the candidates. "We have a democracy, not a monarchy," Mizeur said. "We're not about coronating candidates."
So she remained undeclared after Obama won Iowa. Undeclared after Clinton's rebirth in New Hampshire. Undeclared after Obama swept Maryland. Undeclared after Texas and Ohio, after Pennsylvania, after Oregon.
Pulled in Both Directions
For Mizeur, being neutral did not relegate her to the sidelines. Before January's Iowa caucus, she and Deborah drove to Cedar Rapids for two days of campaigning.
Deborah liked Clinton and volunteered for her in Iowa. But Heather hopscotched among campaigns. She volunteered at rallies for Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards and helped the Clinton campaign arrange rides for elderly voters.
On caucus night, Mizeur was romanced by Obama's message of change. She couldn't separate Hillary Clinton's candidacy from a repeat of Bill Clinton's presidency.
"The visual I kept coming back to was a moving truck pulling up in front of the White House. When I would think of Barack, Michelle and their kids jumping out of the moving truck, it excited me. It represented a new start and change, versus Bill and Hillary dusting off all of their things and putting them back where they were."
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