Democratic National Committee head from LI

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was named chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee last week, will now play a key role in national politics as the party's chief strategist and fundraiser.

"It was amazing to grow up a little girl on Long Island, and to have the president have confidence in me," Wasserman Schultz said, recalling that her political career began inauspiciously in Melville.

Wasserman Schultz, 44, has represented Florida's 20th Congressional District, which runs from Fort Lauderdale to Miami Beach, since 2005. But she grew up near a horse farm in Melville, spending her family-focused childhood volunteering at an animal shelter and food kitchens, playing softball and going to the mall.

Her first foray into politics was in eighth grade, when she ran for president in West Hollow Junior High School (now a middle school). "I lost," she said.

"In 10th grade, I set my sights a little lower. I ran for vice president. I put up posters and talked to all my friends. And I lost again," she said.

She went on to become, at 26, the youngest woman ever to serve in the Florida House of Representatives. After serving in the Florida State Senate, she was elected to Congress. "The only two elections I've lost were at Half Hollow Hills," she said.

Now, President Barack Obama wants her to win elections for Democrats. Wasserman Schultz has a track record of raising money and is popular in Florida, a swing state in the next presidential election.

As child in Melville, she said, she used to ride her bike to volunteer at Plainview Animal Hospital, wanting to be a veterinarian.

"If there was something we disagreed about, she'd tell me exactly what she thought," said her best friend in high school, Dawn Tiritter-Bent of Kings Park.

"We try not to talk about politics too much," she said.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) has witnessed her outspokenness. "We've been on television a few times and we end up screaming at each other. . . . She's in Florida now, but she's still New York."

Saying this is true of himself as well, King questioned whether her Northeastern attitude would work on the national stage.

She doesn't get back to Long Island often because her parents moved to Florida 11 years ago. Still some ties bring her to the Island.

When Obama offered her the DNC post, she sent a text to the Sign-A-Rama sign shop in Huntington, owned by Tiritter-Bent. "She was as giddy as a schoolgirl," Tiritter-Bent said.