Showing 1231 - 1240 of 4389 Items
Date: 2009-07-17
Creator: William 'Bill' W Bradley
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
William Warren “Bill” Bradley was born July 28, 1943, in Crystal City, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Warren and Susan Bradley, a banker and a teacher respectively. He excelled academically and athletically, as a basketball player, through high school. He entered Princeton in 1961, and in 1964 he was a member of the gold-medal Olympic basketball team before going on to be named the 1965 NCAA Player of the Year during his senior year. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford for two years. Upon returning to the U.S., he played professional basketball for the New York Knicks from the 1967-1968 season until his retirement in 1977. Subsequently, he determined to run for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey; he was elected in 1978 and re-elected in 1984 and 1990. He left the Senate in 1997, and in 1999 he announced his candidacy for the 2000 presidential election. Failing to win the Democratic nomination, he supported Al Gore. He has published six non-fiction books, is a corporate director of Starbucks, and is a partner at the investment bank Allen & Company in New York City.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: the bipartisan group in the U.S. Senate class of 1978; Bradley’s appointments to the Finance Committee and Energy and Natural Resources Committee; getting to know Mitchell on the Finance Committee; debating the 1986 tax bill; Mitchell’s election to majority leader; Finance issues when Reagan was coming into office and the 1980s; Mitchell’s major contributions as a legislator; Mitchell’s involvement with health care; the frustration surrounding the Iran-Contra investigation; Mitchell as a great majority leader; Bradley’s public statement that “politics was broken;” Bradley’s run for president and Mitchell’s help; contacts with Mitchell and his appointment by Obama; and the trip to the Soviet Union with Mitchell.
Date: 2008-08-07
Creator: Janet 'Jan' P Barrett
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jan (Plourde) (Welch) Barrett was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine. Her father was in the military and, although she and her mother traveled with him, they always returned to Lewiston-Auburn and stayed with her grandparents, the Duponts, owners of Sonny Boy Bread. She attended St. Louis School until the eighth grade and was graduated from Lewiston High School in 1965. Barrett attended two years at the Chandler's School for Women in Boston. After college, she stayed in Boston for work, meeting Don Nicoll after graduation; a few months later he offered her a job on Senator Muskie’s staff as the secretary to the press secretary. She worked in the Waterville state Senate office during Muskie’s tenure until he left the Senate in 1980 and continued with Senator Mitchell until his retirement in 1995.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Lewiston/Auburn community; Don Nicoll; Muskie vice presidential campaign of 1968; Mitchell senate years; Mitchell’s personality; diplomacy of both Mitchell and Muskie; the pride she took in her work and the honor and prestige she felt working for Mitchell; and Jan’s role in the original organization of the Muskie Archives.
Date: 2008-11-17
Creator: Leon G. Billings
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Leon Billings was born in Helena, Montana, on November 19, 1937. His parents, Harry and Gretchen Billings, were progressive journalists. He was graduated from high school in Helena, Montana, in 1955 and then attended Reed College for one year in Portland, Oregon. He completed his undergraduate studies and took graduate courses toward an M.A. at the University of Montana. Billings worked as a reporter and organizer for farm groups in Montana and California. He met his first wife, Pat, in California; they married in Montana and moved to Washington, D.C., on January 4, 1963. While in Washington, Billings worked for the American Public Power Association for three years as a lobbyist. In March 1966, he accepted a job on the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution on the Public Works Committee. He worked for Sen. Edmund Muskie helping to coordinate work on environmental policy. From 1966 to 1978, he served as Muskie’s chief of staff. He served on the Democratic Platform Committee staff in 1968 and in 1974 was co-chairman of a Democratic National Committee task force on Energy and the Environment. He later served as president of the Edmund S. Muskie Foundation, a tax-exempt foundation endowed with an appropriation from Congress to perpetuate the environmental legacy of Senator Muskie. Leon Billings passed away on November 15, 2016.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Edmund S. Muskie's political career and vice-presidential campaign (1968); Mitchell's 1974 Maine gubernatorial campaign (1974) and his U.S. Senate appointment (1980); environmental legislation; personal comparisons between Muskie and Mitchell and comparisons of their respective administrative offices; and Mitchell's decision to retire from the U.S. Senate.
Date: 2009-06-16
Creator: Charlene Sturbitts
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Charlene Sturbitts was born in Evanston, Illinois, on June 16, 1950, to Mary Jane and William Sturbitts. She grew up in Washington, D.C., where her father was employed on the overt side of the CIA. She attended private schools and Sweet Briar College, where she volunteered for the Muskie presidential primary campaign. After graduating from college, she spent a summer as an intern on the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution and was then hired in the fall by Leon Billings as a researcher for the subcommittee. She attended law school at night at Catholic University while continuing her work preparing drafts for what would become the 1977 Clean Air Amendment, graduating in late 1978. When Senator Muskie left the Senate to become secretary of state, Charlene was asked by George Mitchell to join his staff working on environmental issues. She became his legislative director before leaving after five years to work as a lawyer. At the time of this interview, she was an attorney and advisor in the Office of Legislation and Regulatory Law in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: how Sturbitts became interested in politics; volunteering on the Muskie campaign; first became aware of Mitchell; how she was hired by Mitchell; the difference between working on a committee staff and a personal staff; the first environmental legislation Sturbitts worked on for Mitchell, putting environmental protections into legislation that changed coal power plants over to natural gas; how Mitchell became interested in environmental matters and acid rain, and how that became an issue in his 1982 campaign; positioning Mitchell as the ranking member of a subcommittee; becoming Mitchell’s legislative director and what the job entailed; staff meetings; the chief of staff’s role and the power structure in Mitchell’s office; Mitchell’s leadership style within the office; Mitchell’s position on the Tennessee-Tombigbee project; field hearings; comparing Mitchell and Muskie’s offices; issues that were priorities for Mitchell; Senators Moynihan, Simpson, Stafford, and Bentsen; Dole’s role under the Reagan administration; Mitchell’s relationship with the Reagan administration; Sturbitts’s decision to leave the Senate office; her reaction to Mitchell’s decision to retire; changes Sturbitts has observed on the Hill and in the attitudes of those who work there; Gayle Cory’s role; the attitude toward women on the Hill and how it has evolved over time; Sturbitts’s current job at the Department of Energy; and Mitchell’s contribution to the Senate.
Date: 2009-09-29
Creator: Paul Sarbanes
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Paul Sarbanes was born on February 3, 1933 in Salisbury, Maryland. He attended Princeton University and continued his studies at Balliol College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, then attended Harvard Law School. He served as a Democrat from Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 2007. He was the first Greek American senator and notably co-sponsored the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which strengthened corporate governance and created a federal oversight board for the accounting industry.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s personality; winning back the Senate majority in 1986; the Senate Majority Leader race of 1989; George Mitchell’s departure from the Senate; partisanship; and an anecdote about George Mitchell and Senator John Warner during an “old-style” filibuster.
Date: 2010-04-27
Creator: James 'Jim' R Sasser
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James R. “Jim” Sasser was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 30, 1936. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, he was awarded a law degree in 1961, admitted to the Tennessee bar, and became active in the Democratic Party; he managed Albert Gore Sr.’s unsuccessful 1970 campaign. In 1976 he sought election and won a seat in the U.S. Senate; he was reelected to two further terms, serving until 1995. He first met George Mitchell in 1972 when they were both working on Ed Muskie’s presidential primary campaign. He worked with Senator Mitchell on the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and the Senate Budget Committee, which Sasser chaired. In 1995, President Clinton appointed him ambassador to China, where he served until 1999.
Summary
The interview includes discussion of: Budget Committee work; 1990 budget summit; DSCC 1986 (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee); Democratic National Committee; and the 1972 Muskie presidential primary campaign.
Date: 2008-09-27
Creator: G. Arnold Roach
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
George “Arnold” Roach was born in Rockland, Maine, on July 28th, 1929, to Nora Nelson Roach and Herbert Ezio Roach. He grew up in Houlton and summered in Rockland. His father, Herbert Roach, was a potato farmer, buyer, and machinery dealer. Arnold attended the University of Maine and in 1951 joined the National Guard. While farming potatoes in Aroostook County, he served on the National Potato Promotion Board as board president and acted as an adviser to Mitchell on Maine’s agricultural issues. He was a part of the Clinton-Gore transition team for the Department of Agriculture and worked for the Clinton administration for eight years. At the time of this interview, he was retired and living in southern Aroostook County.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: background in potato politics; working on the Clinton-Gore transition team; involvement with the Department of Agriculture; the National Guard Army Reserve program; Mitchell's campaign for governor 1974; interactions with Mitchell, photographs; topics in potato politics; potato farming and the organic food movement; Mitchell's potato advisors and involvement in the trade; Roach's daughter Elizabeth's position as the director of the U.S Senate Page Program; and general thoughts about Mitchell.
Date: 2010-07-24
Creator: Harry M Reid
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Harry Mason Reid was born on December 2, 1939, in Searchlight, Nevada. He attended Utah State University and George Washington University Law School. He is a Democratic U.S. Senator from Nevada, first elected in 1986, and, at the time of this interview, had served as Senate majority leader since 2007. Previously, he represented Nevada’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, was a city attorney, a state legislator, Nevada’s lieutenant governor, and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: majority leader; the Budget Committee vote and Bob Kerrey; 1986 Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Mitchell’s role; Budget Committee issues; and description of Mitchell as senator.
Date: 2009-08-12
Creator: Christian 'Chris' P Potholm
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Christian P. Potholm holds a chair in government and legal studies at Bowdoin College. He took his graduate work at Tufts University and specializes in Maine politics, warfare, African politics, and international conflict. He previously taught at Vassar, Dartmouth, and the College of the Virgin Islands. He worked on Harry Richardson’s staff and was Bill Cohen’s campaign manager in 1972; he continued to work for Cohen while also teaching at Bowdoin. He is the author of fourteen books on politics and founded Command Research, a national polling firm, and the Potholm Group, a consulting group that specializes in ballot measure initiatives.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell’s 1974 run for governor of Maine; Potholm’s role working for Harry Richardson in the 1974 campaign; Mitchell’s being appointed to Ed Muskie’s Senate seat in 1980; Mitchell’s reelection campaign against Dave Emery in 1982; the changes Mitchell made in his 1982 campaign from his 1974 campaign; Mitchell’s partisanship compared to Margaret Chase Smith, Ed Muskie, and Bill Cohen; Ed Muskie’s partisanship; Potholm’s position on Bill Cohen’s staff; Mitchell’s and Cohen’s relationship; Mitchell’s 1988 campaign against Jasper Wyman; Mitchell and PAC money; Mitchell’s TV interviewing style; Public Utilities Commission investigation; Potholm’s continuing relationship with Bill Cohen; Bill Cohen’s current projects; and the placement of Cohen’s papers at the University of Maine, Orono.
Date: 2009-11-30
Creator: Martha Pope, David R Pozorski
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Martha Pope was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Connecticut. She attended the University of Connecticut, majoring in sociology with minors in psychology and statistics and in art. She earned a master’s degree in art education at Southern Connecticut University. She taught art for five years in elementary and junior high school, and then she moved to Washington, D.C. and started work on Capitol Hill. She worked for Senator John Culver, and when Culver lost his bid for reelection, Senator Mitchell kept her on as Environment and Public Works Committee staff focusing on fish and wildlife issues. She became his administrative assistant, and when he became majority leader she was chief of staff to the majority leader. In 1990 she was nominated to be sergeant-at-arms of the Senate, and in 1994 she became secretary of the Senate; she retired from that office in January 1995. She joined the State Department to work with Senator Mitchell on Northern Ireland issues, which eventually led to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. David Roman Pozorski was born on June 26, 1947, to Betty Graham and Roman Leonard Pozorski. He attended Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois, and took his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1969, majoring in history. In 1973, he began his career as a Foreign Service officer; he was deputy director of the German desk when he accepted the assignment to serve as Department of State liaison to Senator George Mitchell, from 1996-1998, during the peace process negotiations in Northern Ireland. Since 2002, he has served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of State.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the position of sergeant-at-arms for the U.S. Senate, and various other Senate positions held by Pope; Mitchell’s retirement from the Senate; Pope’s transitioning from secretary of the Senate to working with Mitchell on Northern Ireland, Pozorski’s assignment to those negotiations at the State Department, and the administrative organization of Mitchell’s Northern Ireland mission; relocating Northern Ireland commission activities to Belfast; President Clinton’s involvement in the peace process; separation of the commission from the State Department; the decommissioning process; events and protracted talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement; Mitchell’s negotiating abilities; Canary Wharf and Sinn Fein’s participation in the talks; the effect of Tony Blair’s election on effecting the Good Friday Agreement; results of the Agreement; living conditions in Northern Ireland for Mitchell’s staff; comparisons between Mitchell’s negotiating skills in Northern Ireland and as Senate majority leader; animosity between loyalists and unionists; assessment of David Ervine; media coverage; Pope’s “Gerry Kelly” incident; comparisons between negotiating peace in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East.