PHILADELPHIA — Looking back now, former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli said the amount of responsibility he gave the young legislative aide who was fresh off a college internship on Capitol Hill “seems ridiculous.”
But Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat, said the 24-year-old Josh Shapiro was capable of handling complicated tasks, such as planning foreign affairs tours in the Middle East and Asia, especially a tense trip to North Korea.
“He had good judgment at an incredibly young age and a real maturity,” Torricelli said of Shapiro, now 49 and the Democratic nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. “No one ever worked for me who was as bright and focused, with such steely determination.”
