Chelsea Clinton weighs role in mom’s bid

updated 3:27 p.m. ET May 14, 2007

NEW YORK - First impressions sometimes create lasting images, and so it is with Chelsea Clinton.

For many, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton's daughter is still a curly-haired 12-year-old with braces and a shy smile — the first "first kid" since Amy Carter to spend her formative years in the White House.

Chelsea Clinton now is a 27-year-old single woman working in the financial sector in New York City. With her mother's trailblazing quest to win the presidency in 2008, the nation could see Chelsea Clinton return to the White House in a very different role, as an occasional visitor or perhaps even a bride at a White House wedding.

Chelsea Clinton has kept a low profile since her mother joined the presidential field in January. She has yet to speak publicly about the prospect of becoming "first kid" a second time.

But those who know her describe an exceptionally bright and grounded young woman who will decide for herself what role to play in her mother's campaign.

"She's not a child living in the White House anymore, so it's entirely different this time," said Lisa Caputo, who was Hillary Clinton's press secretary in Bill Clinton's first term. "But Chelsea is such a poised young lady in her own right, if anyone has the maturity to deal with the situation, it's her."

Even so, the Clintons are mindful of their daughter's privacy and have been determined to protect her from the campaign fishbowl. Requests for interviews with Chelsea Clinton for this story were declined.

"She is an adult, so she gets to make those decisions for herself," Hillary Clinton said in an Associated Press interview in Iowa last weekend when asked what her daughter might do in the campaign.

Former President Clinton recently said the family was determined to let Chelsea live as normally as possible for as much of the campaign as possible.

"She has got her own life to live. She works. She does her own range of other activities," Clinton said in a CNN interview. "She cares a lot about politics and she wants her mom to win. But she has got a life to live and we don't want to interrupt that."

To be sure, Chelsea Clinton has not been absent totally from her mother's efforts. She recently joined her parents onstage at a campaign fundraiser in Manhattan but did not address the audience. Hillary Clinton often describes how being a mom has shaped her candidacy.

A low profile for now
Advisers say Chelsea Clinton probably will step up appearances later in the campaign as she did in 2000, during the closing months of her mother's first Senate race in New York.

Neel Lattimore, who as an assistant to then-first lady Hillary Clinton helped shield Chelsea from the media during her teenage years, said Chelsea will decide for herself what level of privacy she can expect during the campaign.

Politics Discuss: How do you feel about the role presidential children play?

"She'll merit protection based on her own actions," Lattimore said. "The wider you open the door, the more you put yourself in a situation where you lose the privacy you want. She really values her personal privacy, so that's why she can be with her mom and campaign with her mom but not speak if she chooses."

For now Chelsea is busy with her work at Avenue Capital, a $12 billion New York-based hedge fund run by Marc Lasry, a longtime Clinton donor. Avenue Capital employees have contributed more than $30,000 to Hillary Clinton's presidential bid so far, campaign finance records show.

Chelsea often is spotted around New York with her boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker and the son of former Democratic Reps. Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania.

Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky have known each other since they were teenagers in Washington.

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