The Ranger Online

Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Back Page

Media Credit: Derik Villanueva Barack Obama campaigning for the 2008 presidential race June 25 at Sunset Station.

Media Credit: D.A. James Greg Cabo, Internet sales consultant for North Park Toyota in Boerne

Getting an internship to the Illinois State Senate for two years, and a few years later working with then-state Sen. Barack Obama, was the best experience that Greg Cabo ever had.

In 1997, Cabo, the son of Croatian immigrants who met in the U.S., had just graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in psychology when he was selected for the internship along with 19 students from all over the country.

"Ten of us went to the Senate and the rest went to the House of Representatives," Cabo said. "I got to meet so many people and learned very important people skills that proved to be very relevant to my job selling cars today."

It was then-Gov. Jim Edgar that started the program, Cabo said.

While working at the senate, Cabo enrolled in the University of Illinois for a Master of Arts in political science and he graduated in 1999.

Cabo said that getting an education for himself and his brother and sister was a priority to his parents, who didn't get a college education.

"My father, who is a butcher by trade from Croatia, came to the U.S. in 1970 with no money, and started from scratch," Cabo said. "Two years later, he met my mom and married her in 1972, and after that he started a meat-packing business in Chicago that pretty much put me and my two other siblings through college."

Puffing on a Dominican cigar and taking a sip from his Bacardi and Coke while listening to jazz, Cabo remembered his early years in elementary school first learning English, because Croatian was his first language.

"I started learning English when I became 5 years old," Cabo said. "My teacher in school thought I was deaf because I never said a word through the first months of the semester."

Cabo said his parents used to go to work and leave him and his siblings with their grandmother who didn't speak English.

"My parents are a great example of the American dream," Cabo said. "They both came to this country with no money and no education, and today my parents' financial situation is much better due to a lot of hard work and tenacity."

In his first two years as an intern, Cabo was put on the Democratic side of the senate as a state budget coordinator with then-minority leader Emile Jones Jr. in 1997.

One of the people he also worked with was then-Senator Lisa Madigan, who currently is the attorney general of Illinois.

Madigan was one of the senators on the budget committee, and Cabo helped with her campaign before she was elected, he said.

"She is also the daughter of Mike Madigan, who is currently the speaker of the house," Cabo said.

During that period, Barrack Obama was elected as a state senator, Cabo said.

Cabo added that when Obama needed help with budget issues, he would come to him for assistance because Cabo was a budget coordinator on the senate budget committee.

"I found him to be a sincere, awesome, intelligent class-act person," Cabo said. "I was a volunteer on his second campaign against Bobby Rush."

Cabo said that Obama is still the same guy he was then.

He recalled when the senate was in session, May was usually an intense month and he would have morning meetings with the senators.

"You had better have your stuff together if you have a meeting scheduled with Obama because if you don't, he will stomp all over you," Cabo said.

After that, Cabo was hired as a full-time employee with the state and went to work at the Illinois Supreme Court.

"I was in charge of grants for the probation division," Cabo said. "I was the youngest guy ever to get that job."

In 2002, Cabo married Becky Ancira, the daughter of Ernesto Ancira.

They had a baby girl in 2003.

Then Cabo was offered a job in 2003 to come work in one of Ancira's stores as a sales consultant in San Antonio and he decided to take that offer and move from Chicago.

Unfortunately, his marriage ended in 2005, but he still remained working for Ancira.

Cabo said he got a call from Obama in March, three months after Obama was elected as a U.S. Senator.

"He called to make sure I was OK and didn't need anything, which was a very nice gesture," Cabo said.

"Those years working in the Illinois Senate proved to be so beneficial to me than any other experience in my life," Cabo, 32 today, said. "I met so many interesting people and learned so many skills that proved to be so important to me, especially in my line of work in sales today."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools