A former Carroll High School valedictorian who worked for U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy early in her nearly two-decades-long ongoing career in politics this morning remembered the iconic politician as an exceptionally kind, well-prepared leader who could change the atmospherics of a room just by walking into it.
"Kennedy was just such a different kind of senator," said Kim Zimmerman. "People would just want to be in his presence which was very magnetic."
Speaking in a phone interview from her office a half a block from the White House, Zimmerman said, "It's a sad day."
Now the director of federal affairs for a company involved in the health insurance industry, Zimmerman, who has served on the legislative staffs of U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., worked on Kennedy's 1994 Senate re-election bid in Boston. It was among Kennedy's toughest as he faced a well-financed Republican Mitt Romney who later went on to become the governor of Massachusetts and a presidential candidate.
"He (Kennedy) was obviously very concerned about Romney being viable," Zimmerman said.
Kennedy won re-election.
For her part, Zimmerman recalls waiting with Kennedy as President Bill Clinton landed at the airport in Boston for campaign events in 1994. She had some time then to speak personally with Kennedy.
"He was very gracious and very thankful," Zimmerman said.
Several years later, when she was the point person for Senator Nelson, a conservative Democrat, on health care, Zimmerman would be in meetings with her boss, Kennedy and just a few staffers.
That's when she really saw the Kennedy effect, Zimmerman said.
What impressed her most as a legislative staffer, who delved into the details of proposed bills, is that Kennedy did the same. He didn't just pawn it off on staff.
"He clearly read the legislation," Zimmerman said. "He clearly knew what was in it. He could speak about it without notes from staff. It was really impressive that he had such passion."
Zimmerman even received a call from Kennedy at her desk one day. The Kennedy camp and Nelson staff had different views on some developing health-care legislation and Kennedy felt some of his people had made the matter a little too personal toward Zimmerman.
Kennedy called to apologize for that himself, said Zimmerman, who added that the act of kindness left a lasting impression on her about his integrity.
She recalled other meetings in which Kennedy would do such things as bring his dog Splash, or spend some time at the beginning of sessions talking about his family. Zimmerman remembered how pleased Kennedy was one day when he learned that a grandson had been accepted at the University of Virginia Law School.
Zimmerman also spent some time working on one of the campaigns of former Congressman Joseph Kennedy, Edward Kennedy's nephew.
A 1990 CHS graduate who went on to Drake University in Des Moines, Zimmerman is a daughter of John and Lois Zimmerman of Carroll.
In the end, Zimmerman, who has worked in and around Washington politics since 1992 with the exception of a break to earn a master's degree at Duke University in Durham, N.C., said Kennedy is going to be missed by both Democrats and Republicans.
"He has this ability to really bring people together, both the Republicans and the Democrats," Zimmerman said. "I think that not having him in the Senate and his ability to do that is a big loss."
