US Senator Charles Schumer has been serving in some political capacity since he was just 23. Running in an Assembly race years ago as the "50 to 1 underdog," Schumer won the race, got bit by the bug and has been politically representing New York ever since.

Senator Schumer took time from his busy schedule to visit Anton Newspapers Dec. 6 to share with editors his latest proposals, which his Congressional counterparts are now reviewing, as well as get an update on the latest issues affecting Long Island's local communities.

Remembering his father pacing the kitchen floor every Sunday night because he dreaded the thought of going to work every Monday morning, Schumer vowed he'd never repeat his father's experience. So while practicing law during the summer between his second and third years of law school, pushing a pencil for someone he didn't even know, he realized his interest was elsewhere - in politics and community service. When asked to run for an open Assembly seat as the alternative candidate, Schumer happily obliged.

"My mother was one of the people originally asked to run," he said. "She was head of the local PTA at Madison High School, and she told them, 'I would never run, I hate politics.' But as an afterthought, she uttered a sentence that changed my life. She said, 'Don't go ask my crazy son.' They didn't know who I was but she knew I loved politics. They called me up and asked if I would run and I said I would."

As a result, Schumer didn't practice law in that "big, fancy law firm." He graduated from law school on June 4, 1974 and on June 5, 1974 was on the streets of Sheepshead Bay, a neighborhood in Brooklyn in which he was raised, giving out leaflets, running for the Assembly.

The first day he began campaigning, he went to his local barber and asked him if he'd put a poster in the window. "He agreed and said, 'Kid, I've never told you this but I'm not only the local barber, I'm the local bookie. You're the 50 to 1 underdog - how much are you betting on yourself?'"

His parents became aghast at the idea of their son going into politics since they struggled to send their son to Harvard Law School. "My mother wrote notes to her friends asking them not to vote for me. 'He'll get this silly idea out of his head and he'll go practice law like he was intended to do,' she said. But I won without the political machine behind me in any way. I became a community leader and one of the groups that always supported me were the local community newspapers," he said. After his victory, Schumer served in the Assembly for six years, ran for Congress in 1980 and in 1998 ran for a seat in the Senate.

As the first senator to have an office on Long Island, Schumer says the area is a "key to the whole state" and spends much time out here. When campaigning, one of the biggest issues constituents approached him about was the high cost of college tuition and how difficult it was for middle class couples to send their children to good schools. "Even if you're making $80,000 a year, that tuition bill really socks you," he said. Schumer passed a law last year that would enable the first $4,000 of college tuition [graduate school included] to be deductible. "If you go to a SUNY school, it's all deductible. If you attend a private school, although it's not all deductible, a lot of it is and there are so many people who don't know it."

During this session of Congress, Schumer hopes to increase that amount to $12,000. "This applies to all income limits and it's good per child. That'll make a big difference for people. I did it for two reasons - college is essential for so many young people. Secondly, the middle class always seems to be forgotten. If you're poor they give you help, if you're rich you don't need the help. The middle class always seems to struggle."

Continuing his crusade in Washington to further help the middle class, Schumer suggested reducing the payroll tax for a period of time. "If the payroll tax is reduced - let's say two percent for the employer and two percent for the employee - you put money in the hands of every working person. But you'd also give money to the companies, particularly the small businesses. Instead of just reducing taxes on the highest income bracket, I propose a middle class payroll tax cut."

Believing the proposal could be worthy of approval, he added, "You've got Democrats and Republicans saying it and what was even more interesting was that the business round table came out for it because they realized people don't have enough money in their pockets to buy the goods they produce."

He also realizes the struggle the middle class has with health care. "Prescription drugs are really high. HMOs are pulling out and the premiums are going way up. As a result, many senior citizens went into Medicare Plus Choice to get their prescription drugs covered."

Schumer suggested a three-pronged approach to dealing with this issue: He passed a bill in the Senate that would speed up the process of getting generic drugs on the market. He proposed increasing the reimbursement rate for prescription drugs, bringing the HMOs that have left Long Island back and reducing the premiums. He proposed a 35 percent tax credit to employers who are providing health care to employees. "We don't have to radically change the health care system, we just have to make it easier for middle class people to afford it," he said.

"9/11 was a horrific day," Schumer said. He and his wife were frantic for six hours before they found their daughter, who attended Stuyvesant High School, and the Senator began assessing how the attack wreaked havoc on the city. While meeting with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani and Governor George Pataki, Schumer received a message from a staff member informing him that the president was asking Congress for $20 billion for national defense and homeland security but aid for New York was not mentioned. "I knew I had to strike while everyone was focused on this," he said.

"The president called me from Air Force One and I had a meeting with him the next day. I told him of the horrible experience I had not being able to find my daughter. I told him I was learning every two to three hours of somebody who had someone missing. I told him of the damage. And at the end, I said, 'Mr. President, that's why in addition to the $20 billion you've asked for homeland defense and national security, we need $20 billion in New York' and he said, 'You got it.' And throughout the next year the president stood by it. I believed him. People said I was naive but he delivered."

New York received $21.4 billion in funds, some of which is earmarked to rebuild the subways. The funds are also being put toward tax incentives to get companies to come to New York and hire people while some is geared toward building a new transportation infrastructure that could employ thousands and thousands of people, particularly in the construction field.

Senator Schumer explained how droves of New Yorkers will become victims of identity theft - when someone steals your personal information to use or start a credit card account on your behalf - this holiday season. It works in several different ways. It occurs when a thief uses another person's name and social security number without prior consent to apply for services requiring a credit check. The thief registers for the services and has all billing information sent to a fake address so that the victim has no idea that his identity has been stolen. Then the thief uses the services without paying for them, ruining the victim's credit rating as agencies seek to collect the unpaid debt. It costs the average victim more than $1,000 to cope with the damage.

Almost 87,000 cases occurred in 2001 - 36,000 of which involved credit cards. Admitting that there is no foolproof way to prevent any crime, Schumer offers steps people can take to decrease their chances of falling victim, including using a locked mailbox to send and receive all mail and suggests everyone be suspicious of telephone solicitors.

"In the long term, I believe several steps need to be taken by the federal government to clamp down on identity theft and improve the ability of victims to recover," he said. Schumer has since urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to implement five measures he feels necessary to curb the problem.

Schumer, who vows to continue to live in Brooklyn, can't imagine life without politics. He has two tests in life - the Monday morning test and the Friday afternoon test.

"When you wake up Monday morning, do you feel in the pit of your stomach that you want to go to work? When you go home Friday afternoon, do you want to go home? If you could say 'yes' to both of these tests, God's been good to you," he said. "I just really love my job."