Simas tapped as Obama's advisor
By: LURDES C. da Silva
02/06/2009
TAUNTON - Yes, YOU can.
Taunton native David Simas, 39, the son of Portuguese immigrants, epitomizes just that.
He could hardly speak English when he entered elementary school. Now he works steps away from the Oval office as an adviser to President Barack Obama.
Simas resigned his post as a top aide to Governor Deval Patrick a week ago to become a deputy to Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, credited by many as being the architect for the presidential campaign "Yes We Can."
"I'm excited and honored," said Simas in a statement issued by Gov. Patrick's press office.
Simas is a former lawyer for the State House of Representatives' Post Audit and Oversight Bureau and former Register of Deeds for Northern Bristol County, who also served on the Taunton School Committee and City Council.
At the White House, he will work directly with Axelrod to implement key policy for the president, said a spokeswoman for Gov. Patrick.
"We're very excited for him," she said.
Politics sparkled interest in Simas at an early age.
At age 5, he was already lending an ear to how politics and law can change one's life.
He would observe his parents read the newspaper after a hard day's work and discuss current events. They would talk about the different sides of an issue, the political consequences and how certain choices and decisions would influence the community and, most importantly, their family.
Simas was born to António Simas of S. Miguel, Azores, and Deolinda Matos Simas, of Abela, Santiago do Cacém, Alentejo, mainland Portugal. The couple met in the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique and later immigrated to Taunton.
Although Simas has admitted he was deeply influenced by his parents, he did not always share his views with his father, who was a Republican for many years.
At age 18, Simas first decided to run for public office -the Taunton School Committee.
Inquisitive by nature like his heroes Benjamin Franklin and John F. Kennedy, Simas has confessed in the past to O Jornal that he loves to analyze how policy and legislation can change lives for the better and worse.
"You always have to question your motives and why you are taking a stand on an issue," Simas told O Jornal. "I remember having vivid discussions how a bill would affect us in our small home in Taunton."
Shortly after he was offered the post in the West Wing, he met with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Axelrod, Sima's mother told O Jornal.
"We're so proud of him," she said, adding that Simas had to go through a battery of interviews, tests and background checks before being offered the job.
"He is very happy and we're all very happy for him," she said. "My siblings back in Portugal all cried of happiness when I gave them the news. David has always been so proud of speaking Portuguese and of his Portuguese roots."
Anthony Nunes, who taught Portuguese to Simas in high school, said the news of his new post didn't come as a great shock.
"It's not a surprise," he said. "We always knew he was someone who was going some place. He is well liked and articulate."
Nunes, the Department head of World Languages at Coyle and Cassidy High School in Taunton, said Simas was always very involved in school and community activities and athletics.
He was not only class president and vice-president and member of the Student Council, but he was also a Junior Rotarian, a camp counselor, a CCD teacher and volunteer at the local hospital. He also took part in several school sports teams.
"He was always personable and never forgot his roots," he said. "It's nice for Taunton to have someone in the news, but having someone who is Portuguese-American in the White House is even better."
After graduating from Coyle and Cassidy High School, Simas enrolled at Stonehill College, where earned a Political Science degree in 1992. He graduated from Boston College Law School in 1995.
At age 23, while attending law school, he became a familiar face to the Portuguese communities outside of Taunton. He was a strong voice for the movement in the early 1990s to force cable companies to include the Portuguese RTPi channel - free of charge - in their line-up.
Later, while working as an attorney in Taunton, he became a columnist for O Jornal, writing about Common Law twice a month. He often took part in round tables conducted by Radio Voz do Emigrante to discuss issues pertinent to the local communities, especially to Portuguese-Americans.
Fernanda Coelho, Consul of Portugal in New Bedford, hailed his latest appointment as great news.
"It's a source of great pride for all of us that he has been chosen for a post so close to the president," she said. "We wish him the best. He has shown himself to be a very capable, active person. We're very happy for him."
Across the ocean, President Carlos César of the Regional Government of Azores, echoed her words.
"It's an honor for the Azores and for our communities in the U.S.A. to see a Luso-American take on such an important post and responsibility at the White House," read a congratulatory message César sent Simas this week.
Back in high school, Simas wrote about his ambition for the future in his class's journal: "to marry, grow old, have 10 children and die a happy man in the mountains of New Hampshire."
However, a mother superior visiting here from Portugal probably knew best almost four decades ago.
After he was picked for the White House post, Simas' mother suddenly recalled an episode she had long forgotten. She shared it with O Jornal.
"When David was a baby, I helped raise funds at the factory I worked for a mother superior who was here to collect money for an orphanage in Portugal," she said. "Before returning to Portugal, she came to say good-bye. She picked up David from his crib and said, 'Take good care of this baby because he is going to be very famous in his life.'"
What else does the future hold for Simas?
Only time will tell...
Angela Costa Simões