They sometimes start out as drivers, errand boys or executive assistants to the state’s most powerful in politics and government. Sometimes, they’re just volunteering for a cause, and they do a good job. Often, they’re in jobs where they’re expected to go out for the coffee – and at all hours.

A few years later, they wind up as campaign managers, lobbyists or elected officials.

Frequently, it’s simply their dedication – they always are on the clock – that gets them noticed.

Kirk Sander, now a special assistant at NASA, started his career by canvassing neighborhoods for former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry before going on to play a prominent role in state politics.

Sometimes it’s a particularly smart piece of work. That was the case for Jerome Hudson.

Hudson, a Florida State University student, gained national attention when an op-ed he wrote about being a young, black conservative got noticed by Glenn Beck.

Democratic strategist Steve Schale, who managed Barack Obama’s Florida operation during the presidential campaign and was often portrayed as a wunderkind himself, said there are three qualities he looks for in staff that he thinks he can groom for higher profile work:

“Young, smart and eager,” said Schale.

“Somebody who’s young, who doesn’t mind putting in 80 hours per week.” Smart and eager are more obvious desired qualities.

The News Service of Florida has taken scores of nominations from political operatives, lobbyists, state government officials and veteran political watchers on who they see as young up-and-comers on the state political scene – people whose names you may not know now, but are likely to be familiar with in the near future.

The nominations included public relations executives, legislative aides, and even some White House staff, all of whom either call Florida home now, or got their start here.

After perusing their resumes and checking up on them with other sources, we have narrowed that list down to 25 rising political or government stars, all under the age of 30. There are more Republicans than Democrats, reflective only of the relative influence of the two parties in state politics and government right now.

The list, separated by party and listed alphabetically, includes talent from all corners of the state. We’ve also included four state lawmakers under 30 – just getting elected to state office in one’s 20s makes them an automatic “person to watch.” Ask Adam Putnam, who was elected to the state House right out of college, and soon was the No. 3 Republican in Congress. Now he’s the state agriculture commissioner – still not 40 -- and mentioned as a strong possible future candidate for governor.

Here they are:

The DEMS

Kevin Cate, 27, president of Kevin Cate Communications

Cate, a Wesley Chapel High School graduate, was tasked with getting Democrat Loranne Ausley’s message out to the voters in her race for chief financial officer against Republican Jeff Atwater. Atwater creamed Ausley, but the Democrat saw a noticeable uptick in media coverage and polling after Cate came on board and started calling and e-mailing members of the capital press corps regularly. Cate served on former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink’s communications staff and worked on the Obama campaign’s Florida effort.

Tyler Hudson, 25, University of Florida law student

“He was doing things at 18 that some people aren’t doing at 30,” said Democratic operative Steve Schale. Hudson has been working behind the scenes in Democratic politics since high school and landed his first big job helping the John Kerry presidential campaign writing staff during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. During the 2008 presidential election, he served as a deputy field director for Obama and oversaw the entire Election Day turnout operation. He then made the decision to put his full-time political career on hold to go to law school.

Nate Jenkins, 29, deputy campaign manager for "Alex Sink For Governor"