Simon Limage

Position: Chief of staff, Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.)
Age: 32
Hometown: Born in the United Kingdom; grew up in Paris
Marital status/children: Single
Last job: Deputy chief of staff
First job: Catering, as an undergraduate at Tufts University
Most unusual job: Tufts University stage crew — moved pianos in the dark between acts
Most embarrassing moment: “Trying to make it into the Longworth [House Office] Building with a large sword I picked up as a souvenir during a codel [congressional delegation trip] to Jordan in 2004.”
Number of cups of coffee you drink per day: Two
Religion: Jewish
Favorite political TV show or movie: “Thirteen Days,” about the Cuban Missile Crisis
Most inspirational figure: “My grandmother.”
Dream job (not including present one): I’m a huge fan of Michele Flournoy, but undersecretary for policy, Defense Department. [Flournoy is the Obama administration’s nominee for this post.]
College: Tufts University
Graduate School: Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Passion outside work: Soccer and cooking
Claim to fame: Won the fifth-grade spelling bee at Carminati Elementary School, Tempe, Ariz.

Simon Limage is an example of the steady career progress Capitol Hill staffers can make if they stick around more than a couple of years.

Limage interned for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 1999 and was hired as a legislative correspondent in 2000. He moved to Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s (D-Calif.) office in 2001, starting there as a legislative assistant, then moved to legislative director, deputy chief of staff and now chief of staff.

“I feel like I’ve done most jobs other than press and staff assistant, and I feel that one of the strengths that I bring to the job is knowing what other people go through,” Limage said.

But he knows that he can’t be omnipresent.

“A wise person once told me to decide what kind of chief of staff I wanted to be, but I couldn’t be everything to everyone,” he said.

That said, Limage is still doing Tauscher’s defense legislative work — “You can tell I don’t like to delegate” — and hopes to help his boss raise her profile in that arena.

“I’m very focused on getting her to be a leader on nonproliferation, which is something she’s self-taught in, representing [the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories] in the district,” he said.

“I think I’ll feel successful if her voice is heard and if we can effect change.”