I don’t know Josh Shapiro, but I do know the type.
It’s what’s known as the Young Man in a Hurry.
It describes the sort of guy who starts working on his political career while he’s still in his teens and progresses up the ladder to within reach of the top rung.
One such politician we’re all familiar with is Chris Christie. He got into politics by knocking on doors for Republicans in Livingston while still in his teens. In college, he was chosen president of his class at the University of Delaware. That was followed by getting elected governor twice and making two unsuccessful runs against Donald Trump.
Shapiro took a similar path on the other side of the Delaware River. And as of Monday, he was at the top rung of the ladder, waiting to see if Vice President Kamala Harris picks him as her running mate.
Christie seems to have recognized a kindred spirit in Shapiro.
In an article in The Hill Sunday, Christie was quoted as saying that Harris would be wise to choose Shapiro for veep.
“I don’t think this is a hard choice,” Christie said. “He’s a very talented politician. He’s extraordinarily popular, 65 percent job approval in a state she needs to win. This is really important.”
As it happens, Shapiro also got his start in elective politics in college. He was elected student body president at the University of Rochester.
And if Shapiro gets the nod, it will be Trump’s fault, Christie said. That’s because The Donald endorsed a MAGA candidate to run against Shapiro in 2022. The guy lost in a landslide, making Shapiro look like a political genius.
Interestingly, it was another Jersey guy in a hurry who gave Shapiro his start in politics. That was Bob Torricelli.
After Shapiro graduated from college, he moved to D.C. and got a job as an adviser to Senator Bob Torricelli at the tender age of 24.
“He had good judgment at an incredibly young age and a real maturity,” Torricelli was quoted as saying of Shapiro during that campaign. “No one ever worked for me who was as bright and focused, with such steely determination.”
But sometimes a politician can have too much determination. The politician nicknamed “The Torch” found that out in 2002 when he had to abandon his re-election campaign after he was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee following an investigation into whether he had improperly accepted gifts from a businessman convicted of election-law violations.
And then there was the election for president of the Class of 1974 at Rutgers. It was “voided because of unethical campaign practices on the part of incumbent Torricelli,” according to the Rutgers Targum.
Ancient history? These days, the internet never forgets.
The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered a piece that Shapiro wrote 30 years ago for the student newspaper at the University of Rochester in which he gave his views on the Mideast.
“Palestinians will not peacefully coexist,” he wrote, because “they do not have the capabilities to establish their own homelands and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States.”
If I were a Democrat, I’d be worried about the sort of reaction the party might receive if Shapiro is the veep nominee. Will the party’s pro-Palestinian faction make the 2024 Chicago convention a replay of the 1968 convention, also in Chicago?
If I were a Democrat, I’d nominate Mark Kelly for veep. As a guy who actually fought in a Gulf War, the Arizona senator and former astronaut is well-positioned to offset Republican v.p. nominee JD Vance, also a veteran.
But a Harris-Shapiro ticket has its problems, says no less an authority than Pennsylvania’s most colorful candidate.
That’s John Fetterman. He’s the 6-foot-eight, hoodie-wearing politician from the heartland who in 2022 roundly trounced the Republican recommended by Trump, TV’s “Dr. Oz.”
Politico reports that “Fetterman’s advisers suggested to Harris’ team that the senator believes that Shapiro is excessively focused on his own personal ambitions.”
Perhaps. But how do you get ahead in politics at a young age without focusing on your personal ambitions?
I personally prefer politicians who first became prominent because of other ambitions. The archetype would be Dwight Eisenhower, whose success as a general prepared him for the presidency.
Or perhaps Ronald Reagan, who succeeded in Hollywood before deigning to run for office.
But Democrats tend to go for these young-men-in-a-hurry, like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Will the third time pay for all?
Whoever is chosen will appear at a rally with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
And Philadelphia abuts Shapiro’s own Montgomery County. So it would be a short ride for Shapiro.
A lot of Republicans hope he takes it.
UPDATE: It turns out Kamala Harris didn’t take Christie’s advice. She’s going with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
He seems like a nice guy, but in American politics, nice guys - or girls - from Minnesota tend to finish last.
The prior Minnesota governor to run for president was Tim Pawlenty in 2012. As I noted at the time, Pawlenty was the kind of guy who boasted to a Washington audience that in Minnesota they have cash bars at weddings.
No wonder the pols from that state never go anywhere.
More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns
Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com.
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