Christopher Korge, 44, is probably as close to Bill Clinton as any supporter in the country. He and his wife Irene have dined at the White House and they've had the President as a guest in their sumptuous, gated Pinecrest home.

"I have a very real relationship," Korge said in a recent interview. "There's a very real friendship there. Actually, Clinton and Gore are good friends. I don't know how I got in this position; I always wanted to run for office. My dream was when Dante Fascell retired, to run for his Congressional seat. But I found that being behind the scenes, in many respects, you can get more things done."

Korge has had President Clinton as a guest in his home, dines at the White House, rubs shoulders with the elite of the national Democratic Party and calls Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas a friend, yet he shuns the title of power broker.

"I get nervous when people connect me with words like 'power broker,'" he said in a recent interview conducted early one morning at his sprawling residence. "But, can I call up the President of the United States and speak to him? Yes, I can. Have I used my relationships to help the community? Absolutely."

Korge says his behind-the-scenes efforts resulted in Miami-Dade landing a federal empowerment zone -- a federally designated area within the community where the government provides grants and other incentives to facilitate economic development -- which ultimately may be worth a billion dollars to the county.

Korge -- already on the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, the Democratic Party Board of Trustees and the Team 2000 Congressional Campaign Committee -- recently was named by the Democratic National Committee to the post of National Finance Vice Chairman.

Korge was born and raised in Miami. He attended St. Peter & Paul and Coral Way Elementary Schools, then graduated LaSalle High School in 1973, where he was a running back on the football team.

"I had the worst football injury in the history of my high school," he recalled. "Broke my femur right across above the knee. My leg was at a ninety-degree angle, if not worse and I had the pleasure of having a body cast for four months. I missed four months of school."

Korge recovered, but his football playing days were over. He went on to Miami-Dade Community College, then the University of Florida, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1977. He put himself through Temple Law School in Philadelphia clerking at a law firm and working as a security guard at Gimbel's Department Store.

"I always was very politically inclined," said Korge. "My father was (the late congressman) Dante Fascell's political campaign treasurer and from the time I was a little kid and a page in Washington, I've just always had an interest in politics, especially after being a page. It gave me the idea that I wanted to be politically involved. I didn't know in what capacity. But, I also wanted to be a lawyer. I saw how the laws were made and it really interested me."

Korge considered staying in Philadelphia, his wife's home, after graduating law school in 1981, but ultimately opted to return to Miami and study for the Florida bar exam.

"So, here I am in Miami looking for a job with a wife and new kid," Korge recalled with a smile. "My first job was as the assistant city attorney for Miami Beach. That's how I ended up in this local government business."

He stayed in the position for three years, learning the ropes of city politics and how government works. In 1985, his boss -- city attorney Lucia Dougherty -- resigned and went to work for the city of Miami; Korge decided to go with her and soon rose to the top of the staff as administrative city attorney.

"Working for city government, I became an expert on municipal law," he said. "I had no choice, I had to do just about every job when I was working for local government. I went from having the lowest job on the totem pole to having the best job. I worked in every facet of local government. I was the municipal prosecutor, to negotiating all of the complex deals that the city was involved in."

Korge was named general counsel to the Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority in 1986 and found himself re-negotiating the agreement that brought the Heat basketball team to Miami and re-working the pact that made the Miami Arena a reality. Korge is especially proud of the Arena deal.
"That arena for $45 million was one of the best investments that this community has ever made," he said. "It was paid for with bed tax dollars. It wasn't paid for with local taxpayer dollars it was paid for by visitors.

"I loved being a public servant," Korge continued. "It's very rewarding to work for government and be part of the progress. I know for example that it took ­ myself and another gentleman ­ 12 hours a day seven days a week to make the Miami Heat deal happen and that if I hadn't worked that hard it would have been easy for that to fall apart."

In 1986, when the prestigious law firm of Holland & Knight beckoned and waved an attractive package that included a partnership, he left the city for private practice. He stayed with the firm for three-and-a-half years, then left to join Zack, Ponce, Tucker, Korge & Gillespie. Three years later in 1994 he joined Hanzman, Criden, Korge, Chaykin, Ponce & Heise as managing partner, where he remained until 1998.

"We were making huge amounts of money," he said responding to a query about his job hopping. "One year at the Zack firm we had 19 lawyers and we made $19 million. There are two things that break up law firms ­ too much money and too little money. It's usually too little first and then too much."

Deciding that he wanted to downsize and focus more on business, Korge departed Hanzman, Criden and formed a new firm with Norman Powell.

To say that life is going well for Korge would be something of an understatement. Just this past February, when King and Queen of Spain were visiting Washington, President Clinton invited him and his wife to a state dinner at the White House. He sat at the head table with the President and the Queen.

"It's a huge honor to be invited to a state dinner," Korge said, "and an even greater honor to be seated with the President. There are Congressmen and Senators that have never been invited to a state dinner."

But, Korge agrees in something of an understatement that he is a supporter of both President Clinton and Vice President Gore.

"In fact, I had the President here in December in my home," Korge said. "I've had the President here twice and the Vice President here once. I've been a supporter (of Clinton) in a fairly obvious way as far back as 1992. The more I listened to the President, the more I liked what I was hearing. I felt like he was changing and re-defining the Democratic Party to where I thought it should be. I've gone out and raised millions of dollars for the Democratic Party at all different levels."

Korge doesn't limit his fundraising activities to politics. He is Chairman of the Coconut Grove Junior Chamber Foundation, a foundation he created to give money to charities.

"For example, because this year I was co-chair of the United Way Ball we gave money through the ball to the Children's Home Society, the Catholic Children's Home and Boys Town," he said.

Korge also has been a member of the South Florida Super Bowl Host Committee, a past board member of the Greater Miami Convention and Visitor's Bureau, a trustee of the Miami Art Museum, past trustee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and past vice chairman of the Urban League of Greater Miami. He has been a member of the county's Charter Reform and Budget Reform commissions.

Korge and his wife Irene have three children; Andrew, 18, a freshman in college; Kristina, 13, a seventh grader, and Angela, 8, a third grader.

"I'm 44, I've been blessed with many successes, I have a wonderful family life, I enjoy my life and I'm doing a lot of things that I've always wanted to do," said Korge.

By Ron Beasley