Pa. lawmaker on fast track to top

HARRISBURG - Walking the halls of the state Capitol, Rep. Josh Shapiro looks like a classic back bencher biding his time until seniority kicks in. He's impeccably dressed, wide-eyed and fresh-faced, appearing younger than his 33 years.

But in only his second term in office, the Montgomery County Democrat has already etched an impressive resume that has Democrats - and even some Republicans - using the phrase rising star.

Consider: It was Shapiro who last January hatched the plot that propelled Rep. Dennis O'Brien (R., Phila.) into becoming the surprise consensus choice as House speaker. That bold move led to political plums usually reserved for seasoned pols.

"It's not a stretch to close your eyes and see him in leadership," said Gov. Rendell. "I can see him as speaker of the House in six, eight or 10 years."

G. Terry Madonna, a politics professor and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College, called Shapiro's rise "a remarkable feat in a chamber of 203 members that is very seniority-driven."

"The way the culture is in the legislature, you have to bide your time," Madonna said. "But Shapiro has jumped ahead of that by leaps and bounds."

Capitol colleagues describe Shapiro as smart, hard-working, thoughtful and politically savvy well beyond his years. (He turns 34 on Wednesday.)

Admiring his intelligence, Rendell said of Shapiro: "The more complex and confusing the issue, the more he stands out."

Shapiro doesn't like the label of rising star.

"If people thought of me as a hard-working, intelligent legislator who takes care of constituents and gets things done in Harrisburg, I would be very, very pleased," he said.

Shapiro's big political break as a legislator came on New Year's Eve, when he placed a call to O'Brien. He had an audacious idea:

Would O'Brien, a Republican, consider becoming speaker of the House, newly controlled by Democrats?

The Democrats were in a tough corner. Democratic Leader Bill DeWeese did not have the votes needed to become speaker, and they feared the post would remain in the hands of Rep. John Perzel (R., Phila.) if an alternative agreeable to both parties couldn't be found.

Political serendipity is how DeWeese described Shapiro's move, which he came to believe was in his best interests as well. Without it, DeWeese said, "the current dynamic of this chamber would be drastically altered. We were at the end of our tether" on ways to keep Perzel out.

"Young Joshua has pluck."

O'Brien said Shapiro has "that star quality that only comes along every once in a while" - a rare ability to reach across the aisle and build relationships without people questioning his motives.

After grabbing the gavel, O'Brien quickly rewarded Shapiro, appointing him as deputy speaker, a nonofficial advisory role, and tapping him to cochair the new bipartisan reform panel studying ways to make Harrisburg more open.

In that role over the last five months, Shapiro has won high marks - at least in these early stages - from advocates who are pushing for greater accountability in state government.

The commission has recommended the House adopt several proposed bills, including ones to limit campaign contributions and expand the public's access to public records. But it's unclear whether the efforts will become law in a process that likely will take months.

"He is the golden boy of reform, but he has yet to prove if he has the legislative Midas touch," said Harrisburg activist Eric Epstein, founder of RockTheCapital.org.

House Republican Leader Sam Smith (R., Jefferson) acknowledged that Shapiro's role in the speaker's election "garnered him a huge amount of political capital initially."

"But," he added, "this business is more of a marathon than a sprint, so time will tell if that's real capital or just a flash in the pan."

A former top aide to U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D., Pa.), Shapiro got to Harrisburg after pulling off an improbable victory in 2004 over a well-known candidate, former Rep. Jon Fox.

Neil Oxman, the political consultant from Philadelphia, received an e-mail from Chris Mottola, a GOP strategist, congratulating him on his work on Michael Nutter's mayoral campaign. It surely was Oxman's best work to date, Mottola wrote.

Not so, replied Oxman. It was what he did for Shapiro in what looked to be a doomed campaign to unseat incumbent Fox.

In internal polls in the summer of 2004, Shapiro, a little-known candidate from Abington, was trailing Fox by a 65-21 ratio.

"Josh knocked on 9,000 doors that summer, didn't get discouraged, and wound up beating Fox by 12 points," said Oxman. "He just out-hustled him. He works very hard in a very serious way."

Shapiro, a lawyer by trade, grew up in a well-to-do household. His father, Steve Shapiro, is the head of pediatrics at Abington Memorial Hospital. His mother, Judith, is the director of Shaare Shamayim-Beth Judah School in Northeast Philadelphia.

"My parents instilled in me from an early age that when you have been given a lot, a lot is expected of you," Shapiro said.

Shapiro acknowledges that public service, and all the time spent in Harrisburg, comes at a cost to his wife of 10 years, Lori, and their two young children.

"I work, as my wife would attest, around the clock. I'm always linked to my BlackBerry," he said. "What I need to do a better job of, frankly, is finding time to be with my children."

As for his political future, Shapiro won't speculate.

"I love public service," he said, "and I hope to be able to do that for quite some time."