Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, helped raise money at an event for President Barack Obama Monday in Toledo, saying he’ll run on a record of economic recovery.

She said the president’s policies have made a difference in northwest Ohio, and helped revive the economy from the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

“He inherited the largest set of problems of any president since FDR,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said, in an interview with The Blade after the fund-raiser, which was closed to the media.

“Thanks to his policies, we’ve been able to go 23 straight months of private sector job growth. In Ohio, because of his commitment to rescue the American automobile industry we’ve had a resurgence here of manufacturing, [and] plants that were shuttered up and running with three shifts,” said the Florida congresswoman, who has emerged nationally as a highly visible advocate for her fellow Democrat’s re-election.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz said Republican Mitt Romney would have let Detroit go bankrupt, while Mr. Obama did what was necessary, even though it was “politically unpopular.”

Mr. Romney said recently that he supported managed bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler, but that President Obama’s bailout was “crony capitalism” that benefited political supporters in labor.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz said she views Mr. Romney, and the currently surging candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, as presenting the same choices to voters.

“There is a dramatic difference between the two directions we could go in. Santorum and Romney have extreme views that focus on people that are already doing well. And President Obama wants to fight for the middle class and working families,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz declined to verify some reports that the president’s re-election campaign is expecting to raise $1 billion.

“We’re not focused on an amount. We’re focused on standing up the most dynamic, grassrooots campaign in American history,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said. She said the campaign has already made personal contact with 508,000 Ohio voters and opened its sixth Ohio office Monday, in Parma. The Toledo office, at 119 North Ontario St., has not opened yet.

“We have an aggressive voter registration drive, especially in the battleground states,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.

A congressman from the Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale areas of Florida, Ms. Wasserman Schultz is known not only for her many appearances on TV political talk shows but as a close friend of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.).

She assisted Ms. Giffords when she returned to the House of Representatives on Jan. 25, just over a year after wounded in a mass shooting outside an Arizona shopping center, and read her letter of resignation in an emotional ceremony.

She said she sees Ms. Giffords about once a month.

“She’s doing what she should be doing which is focusing on making a full recovery.

“The outpouring of emotion and affection has just been remarkable, and it’s so deserved. She’s an amazing person. She’s become I think a symbol for so many Americans of everything good in government, people’s hopes and aspirations of what government can be and what government should be — public service — and in many cases is,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.

A member of Congress since 2005, Ms. Wasserman Schultz became chairman last May after President Obama designated her as his choice for the job.

Now 45, Ms. Wasserman Schultz was the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida state legislature at age 26. She said she had no political plans, such as to run for president someday, other than to get re-elected this year and help President Obama and other Democrats on the ballot get re-elected.

“I’ve always focused on working hard, and the rest takes care of itself,” Ms. Wasserman Schultz said.

Former Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, one of three Lucas County co-chairs of the Obama fund-raising campaign, said about 100 people attended the noon event, for which ticket prices ranged from $250 to $1,000. Among the guests was Mayor Mike Bell, a political independent.

Contact Tom Troy at:

tomtroy@theblade.com

or 419-724-6058.

First Published February 20, 2012, 10:43 p.m.