Inside the Office of Rep. Betty McCollum: Meredith Raimondi

Title: Staff assistant
Age: 23
Hometown: St. Paul, Minn.
Education: George Washington University, B.A. in philosophy
Last job: I worked in the Washington office of the foundation The Atlantic Philanthropies in the Aging Program.
Philosophy on phone etiquette: Patience is a virtue not by accident.
Most bizarre incoming call: A constituent called to complain that her popcorn popper didn’t have an on-off switch and that when she plugged it in, flames shot out of the power socket. I advised her not to plug it in again. I never cease to be amazed at what people may say but always enjoy hearing from constituents.
Professional role model: Betty McCollum
Most embarrassing moment on Capitol Hill: I have embarrassing moments whenever I get lost, which seems to happen far more often than I would prefer!
Interests outside of work:  Crime dramas, NPR, Russian literature, coffee, podcasts, psychology

Meredith Raimondi met Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) in 2000. McCollum had just won her first election to Congress, and Raimondi, a middle-school student at the time, went to the new congresswoman’s victory party.

Raimondi made it into the photo of McCollum and her celebration that ran in the next day’s paper.

{mosads}“I was in the background, but it was really exciting,” she says.

Raimondi met McCollum again as a senior in high school at a fundraiser. That time, she got to have a conversation with the lawmaker. Raimondi expressed her interest in politics, and McCollum encouraged her to pursue it.

“I remember she was like, ‘You’re going to be in Washington; you have to come be an intern,’ ” Raimondi says. “That always stuck in the back of my mind, and I knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Like many Minnesota Democrats from a certain generation, Raimondi says she was inspired by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.). She came from a political family that made a habit of attending political events, and Raimondi recounts meeting Wellstone several times throughout her life. One of her most vivid memories of him came as she witnessed him at a meeting of constituents in the Women, Infants and Children federal grant program.

“It was just really nice to see how he connected with the women and listened to their stories and really took what they needed for their lives — he brought that to the Hill and made things happen,” says Raimondi, who also worked on Wellstone’s last Senate campaign before he died.

Raimondi graduated from George Washington University last year and started in McCollum’s office in September as an intern. Her goal from day one was “to switch from the red intern [ID] badge to the green staffer badge.”

After her internship, her boss asked her to stay on.

“I was thrilled,” she says.

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