Graduated from New York's Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied ballet, then went to work for Illinois Public Action, a consumer rights organization Received a master's in speech and communication from Northwestern University, then worked as a staffer at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which he would later head Chief fundraiser for Richard M. Daley's mayoral campaign In just 12 days, his campaign would end in a historic victory--a triumph that almost no one believed possible when he took the job nearly two years ago--or in colossal failure. "James.
No James, YOU LISTEN," Emanuel barked into a cell phone, about to release a string of profane invectives more intense than usual. "Can you listen for one expletive minute? I'm working these campaigns all the time.
The campaigns all have different textures." His wiry body tensed, his voice breaking with stress. Emanuel shouted, "If you don't like what you see, I highly recommend you pick up the .
.. phone and do it yourself.
" The moment captured Rahm in full, a portrait in power of a brutally effective taskmaster. During the past year, the Tribune had exclusive access to the strategy sessions, private fundraisers and other moments that shaped this victory. The newspaper agreed not to print any of the details until after the election.
Now that the votes have been counted, the story of how Emanuel helped end an era of Republican rule can be told. He did it, in large measure, by remaking the Democratic Party in his own image. Democrats had never raised enough money.
Emanuel, a savvy fundraiser who shaped those skills under Richard M. Daley and Bill Clinton, yelled at colleagues and threatened his candidates into generating an unprecedented amount of campaign cash. Democrats had a history of appeasing party constituencies.
Emanuel tore up the old litmus tests on abortion, gun control and other issues. With techniques that would make a Big Ten football coach blush, he recruited candidates who could mount tough challenges in some of the reddest patches of America. Democrats had blanched at hardball.
Emanuel, jokingly called "Rahmbo" even by his mother, muscled weaker Democrats out of races in favor of stronger ones, and ridiculed the chairman of his own party. In January 2005, when Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked Emanuel to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, experts predicted that the party would take perhaps three seats. On Tuesday, it picked up at least 28, changing the course of the Bush presidency.
In a world where congressmen refer to each other as "my distinguished colleague," Emanuel, 46, is sometimes unable to get through a single sentence without several obscenities. His politics are centrist, but his style is extremist. The top of his right middle finger was severed when he was a teenager, adding to his aura of toughness--especially when he extends that middle finger, which he does with some regularity.
For all his forcefulness, Emanuel was not responsible for the political climate, either the failing war or the sex and corruption scandals racking the Republican Party. But with creative recruiting, unremitting fundraising and a national message, he positioned the Democrats to exploit that collapse. In doing so, Emanuel had to be familiar with roughly 50 individual races--the candidates, the interest groups, the voting blocs.
It resembled a game of three-dimensional chess, in that what happened in one district could affect dozens of others. From the outset, there could be only one measure of success: the number of seats the Democrats won. Bill Paxon, a former New York congressman who held Emanuel's job for the Republicans when they seized the House in 1994, explained the unforgiving math.
"Unlike a lot of things in government where there is compromise, there is only one result--you either win or you lose--and you are judged on that," Paxon said. "You can look at fundraising, candidate recruitment and other things, but they are meaningless. The only thing that matters is if you win or lose.
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