Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has chosen her legislative director Neera Tanden and several other longtime advisers as part of her inner team to gear up for the 2006 re-election bid for the Senate. Tanden, who joined Sen. Clinton last year, has for many years worked in former President Bill Clinton’s White House and with Sen. Clinton in various capacities.

Sen. Clinton is often mentioned as a possible Democratic Party candidate for the 2008 Presidential election, in which case Tanden is well placed to be part of that drive when it is announced.

Neera Tanden, Clinton’s legislative director

Roll Call magazine called Sen. Clinton’s team “a small, ethnically diverse stable of advisers dominated by women,” which is supposed to help “chart her political course over the next four years.”

Tanden, who was born and brought up in the United States, is a law graduate. She worked as associate director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during President Clinton’s tenure. She focused on health care, education and juvenile crime for then First Lady Hillary Clinton. Even before that, she worked on the Clinton-Gore campaign in California in 1992 and 1996.

A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and Yale Law School, Tanden was on Sen. Clinton’s campaign as deputy campaign manager in her 2001 run for Congress. She also worked as senior policy adviser to the Chancellor of New York City Schools, Senior Vice President for Domestic Policy at the Center for American Progress.

The Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) had hosted Tanden as part of its Summer Speakers Series on July 10, 2002 at its offices in Washington D.C.

Tanden addressed many questions, including queries on balancing family and political life as a South Asian-American woman. “Well the White House is just a pressure-filled environment for anyone. There is so much scrutiny. Hillary’s office, where I worked, was very supportive of women in this balancing act. She was a mother too and that made her very compassionate about such issues... very few people left Hillary’s staff.”

When asked about how to get South Asian Americans elected to national office, Tanden replied: “Campaign about policies that are specifically important to your constituents. Be responsive to their needs and concerns first. Then target your likely voters and build a coalition of support.”