Mar 17, 2006  |  By: KATHERINE VOLIN  | COMMENTS     

Most 18-year-olds wouldn’t ask their high school principal for permission prior to skipping a half-day of school. But Heather Mizeur, a lesbian running for Maryland’s House of Delegates from the 20th District, which includes Takoma Park and Silver Spring, did just that on her 18th birthday, making sure no one would mind if she played hooky so she could register to vote.

Mizeur, now 33, says that she’s always had politics in her blood. "My earliest political memories are around the picket lines with my father," she says.

Her father, a welder for construction equipment maker Caterpillar in a small town in Illinois, was a lifelong member of the United Auto Workers.

"Of course, it would have been easier for him in some respects to go across the picket line and make the money he needed to have his family stay afloat," Mizeur says. Instead her father took several lesser-paying jobs.

"It was a family obligation to stick together and do what we needed to do to make that stand," she says. "I was fortunate enough to have a lot of formative experiences at a very early age that continued to shape my views on politics."

On her website, www.heathermizeur.com, Mizeur attributes her views on protecting the environment, improving public education and increasing benefits for workers directly to her experiences growing up in rural Illinois.

Mizeur is one several gay candidates running in this year’s elections.

"I may be the most out candidate ever, because I have my partner with me on the video," Mizeur says about an introductory video featuring the two of them on her website. She and her partner, Deborah Mizeur, held a wedding ceremony last August in Maryland.

"Standing up for gay and lesbian civil rights has been an important issue for me, obviously," Mizeur says. "I’d like to think that even if I weren’t gay, it’d be something I’d stand up for, too."

GAY CANDIDATES AND delegates are particularly important given the current Maryland political environment, according to Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland, the state’s gay civil rights group.

"It’s the backbone of change," Furmansky says. "Working with [current gay delegates] Rich [Madaleno], Anne [Kaiser] and Maggie [McIntosh], it’s so obvious that these individuals have a profound impact on their fellow legislators. The stories I hear about ‘I cast this vote for you’ or the reverse, where people go up to them to apologize for having cast a vote they wished they could have cast in a different way."

Furmansky is careful to point out, however, that the road ahead will not be easy for Mizeur.

"It’s a very competitive race," he says. "The incumbents are all really great. Delegate [Gareth] Murray has really emerged as a strong advocate for issues of fairness and justice in GLBT constituents."

Murray, a Democrat, is the incumbent for the District 20 seat Mizeur is vying for. Mizeur says she realizes that winning the September primary will be difficult.

"In my district, the primary is the race," Mizeur says. "Whoever wins the primary is likely assured victory in the general election."

Deborah Mizeur maintains that her wife has what it takes to win.

"The most compelling thing about Heather is her charisma," Deborah says. "She has whatever it is that very few people have to draw people in and want to participate in our democracy."

MIZEUR CURRENTLY SERVES as domestic policy director for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a position she has held since 2003. During Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid, Mizeur served as designer of his health care reform agenda and as his campaign director for the state of Maryland.

Instead of focusing her efforts on Baltimore, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, Mizeur placed the campaign headquarters in Howard County, which Kerry won, and campaigned heavily in southern Maryland. Kerry won Maryland and Mizeur gained valuable connections.

"I’ve got friendships and relationships that matter throughout the state that can help break down those barriers that exist," Mizeur says about her accessibility. " I’m not just a liberal Takoma Park lesbian in rich Montgomery County."

Mizeur also served as a councilmember on the Takoma Park City Council from 2003 through 2005, a position that she decided to relinquish to pursue the House of Delegates. Despite all of her work on national politics, Mizeur says that she is most proud of her local work.

"When I worked on the city council, it was very gratifying to work with neighbors to find solutions to problems that are affecting your ...