Showing 241 - 250 of 2039 Items
Date: 2009-03-16
Creator: Christopher 'Chris' Mann
Access: Open access
- Biographical NoteChristopher Mann was born December 19, 1962, in Augusta, Maine. His parents were Alden and Deana Mann. His father was a Maine native who worked for the State Bureau of Banks and Banking as the director of Securities. Chris grew up in Augusta, attended Cony High School and was graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Southern Maine. He worked on Joe Brennanās 1988 congressional campaign. After that, Mary McAleney offered him a position doing research for the state legislature. He later moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the mailroom for Senator Mitchellās office and eventually became a legislative correspondent. When Senator Mitchell retired, with the help of Mary McAleney, he went to work for the secretary of the Senate in the bill status office. After two years in that position, he was offered a place as a staffer in then Congressman Baldacciās office. In 1999, he moved back to Maine to run the Bangor office for Congressman Baldacci. At the time of this interview, he held a position with the Maine Department of Transportation in the Bureau of Planning. SummaryThis interview includes discussion: family and educational background; Augusta, Maine in the 1960s and 70s; State Bureau of Banks and Banking; University of Southern Maine; Public Interest Research Group (PIRG); interning at Senator Mitchellās office in Portland, Maine; the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; Mary McAleney; Joe Brennanās congressional campaign in 1988; the Maine state Senate; working for Senator Mitchell in Washington, D.C.; Maine people on staff in Washington D.C.; George Mitchell as majority leader; being a legislative correspondent; the Catastrophic Healthcare act; health care; Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA); Chris Mannās responsibilities in Senator Mitchellās office; the Democratic Party network; working for the secretary of the Senate; the Senate bills status office; working for the minority party; Republican Revolution; division in the Senate; living in rural Maine; Maine Department of Transportation; and Senator Mitchellās current projects.
Date: 2008-05-01
Creator: Mary E McAleney
Access: Open access
- Biographical NoteMary Elizabeth McAleney was born on March 18, 1945, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Her mother, Helen Irene (Twombly) McAleney, was a Works Progress Administration worker, and her father, William McAleney, was a U.S. Customs officer. Mary came from a strongly Democratic Maine family and was politically active from a young age. She was sent from her home near Vanceboro, Maine, to St. Josephās boarding school in South Portland, and from there she went to Merrimac College. After her graduation, she taught high school in Maine, first at St. Josephās and then at Catherine McAuley High School. After eight years of teaching, she went into political work. She quickly rose through the ranks during Senator Muskieās ā76 campaign and worked for state Senator Jim Tierney. She served in George Mitchellās U.S. Senate office for ten years (1984-1994), focusing on Maine issues. SummaryInterview includes discussions of: George Mitchellās dedication to and impact on Maine as senator and majority leader; opportunities for young people within Mitchellās Senate office; health care: spousal impoverishment legislation; Talmadge Plantation; Mitchell Scholarship program/Mitchell Institute; sending Maine bottled water to the Senate; achieving balance between Maine and national politics; Mitchellās understanding of human nature; Martha Pope; relationship between Pope and Mitchell; Loring Air Force Base and its closure; Paul Haines; Bob Corolla; McAleneyās introduction to the Mitchell staff and her job definition; Gayle Cory and her āwits and know-howā; Mitchellās Senate Pioneer Scholarship; Mitchellās 1982 campaign; and driving stories.
Date: 2010-10-16
Creator: Peter H Lunder
Access: Open access
- Biographical NotePeter H. Lunder was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on September 14, 1933, to Ann and Michael Lunder. He was graduated from Colby College in 1956 with a degree in business. He joined the family shoe business, where he eventually became president and co-chair of the board for Dexter Shoes. His uncle was Harold Alfond. In 1977 he was part of the Yawkey Group that bought the Red Sox. He served on the Smithsonian American Art Museum Board in the early 1990s, and at the time of this interview he was an overseer of Colby College. SummaryInterview includes discussion of: Lunderās time at Colby College; beginning a career in the shoe industry; his acquaintance with George Mitchell; Lunderās friendship with Robbie Mitchell and the Mitchell family; running a business in Maine; Lunderās interest in the Colby Art Museum; visiting Mitchell while he was in the Senate; Mitchellās role in the Middle East; and Mary McAleney.
Date: 2008-07-29
Creator: Robert 'Larry' L Benoit
Access: Open access
- Biographical Note Robert Laurent āLarryā Benoit was born on August 20, 1948, to Robert Barry Benoit and Inez Frances Benoit. He grew up in the Portland, Maine, area, attended Cape Elizabeth High School, and entered the University of Southern Maine, where he concentrated in U.S. history and received a B.S. in education in 1970. He was a self-taught mechanic but became involved in politics at a young age, running for a vacant seat in the House of Representatives while still in college. After graduating, he took time off to travel and visit family and was then approached in 1971 to work in New Hampshire on Senator Muskie's presidential campaign. Benoit also worked on the reelection campaign of Peter N. Kyros, Sr., a U.S. congressman from Maineās First Congressional District. He was on the staff as a caseworker until Kyros lost his seat in 1974 to David Emery. In 1980, when George Mitchell was appointed to Senator Muskieās vacated U.S. Senate seat, Benoit was hired as a senior field representative for Maine. He later served as sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate. Summary Interview includes discussions of: position with the Maine Democratic Party; work on Muskieās 1968 vice presidential campaign; running field operations; working for Peter Kyros on the congressional reelection campaign, and later work as a caseworker on his congressional staff in Portland, Maine; establishing the Portland state Senate office; as campaign manager of Mitchellās U.S. Senate campaign (1982); Mitchellās U.S. Senate campaign (1988); Jasper Wyman; David Emery; Iran-Contra; work in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC; Senate security; and the intelligence and intellectual energy of Senator Mitchell.
Date: 2015-02-04
Creator: Anonymous
Access: Open access
Date: 2014-03-17
Creator: Donna Adams
Access: Open access
Date: 2009-05-08
Creator: Kenneth 'Ken' M Cole III
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Kenneth M. Cole III was born November 3, 1943, in Portland, Maine, to Kenneth Cole, Jr. and Lena T. Cole. He lived in Windham, Maine, moving to Bernardsville, New Jersey, with his family during his fifth-grade school year. His father worked for Boy Scouts of America. Ken was graduated from Bowdoin College in 1969, then attended law school at Cornell. He returned to Maine to work as a law clerk at Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry in 1971, becoming a lawyer for the firm in 1972. He has been practicing at the firm for thirty-seven years and worked with Mitchell there in the 1970s. He has been active on the Windham town council. He was on the Republican National Committee from 1990 to 2004 and served as chairman of the Maine Republican Party in 1994, representing the party as a lawyer several times. He has run for other offices since then and continues to be in contact with Senator Mitchell.
Summary
This interview includes discussion of: childhood; Bowdoin College; Boy Scouts of America; Cornell Law School; Jensen Baird Gardner & Henry law firm; Coleās legal career; Maine Republican Party; zoning acts in Maine; Plum Creek; George Mitchellās legal career; Republican and Democratic politics in Maine; Republican National Committee; Maine work ethic; Mitchellās senatorial career; Governor Haley Barbour; running for district attorney general; Mitchellās public transformation; and Mitchellās politics.
Date: 2010-01-21
Creator: Michael 'Mike' M Hastings
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Michael M. Hastings, a native of Morrill, Maine, graduated from Tilton School (NH) in 1968 and Bowdoin College in 1972. Following a year of graduate study in Public & International Affairs at George Washington University, he worked for seven years as a foreign and defense policy aide to Senator William S. Cohen (1973-1980) and for four years for Senator George J. Mitchell (1980-1984). In October 1984, he joined the international staff of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and moved to Africa. Over a span of eight years, he worked as a CRS development administrator in Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and The Gambia. During the same period, he assisted in the provision of emergency food for people displaced by civil wars in the Southern Sudan and Liberia. In 1992, he returned to Maine to direct a ācenter for excellence,ā focusing on aquaculture and economic development. Since 2004, he has worked for the University of Maine as its director of Research and Sponsored Programs. Between 1992 and 2008, he also served on several civic boards and institutions including the Maine Fishermenās Forum, the Maine Oil Spill Advisory Committee, the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission, the Down East Institute, and the Maine Sea Grant Policy Advisory Committee. Between 1996 and 2001, he was elected three times to be a member of the Town Council of Hampden, Maine, where he resides with his wife, a middle school teacher.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: his transition from Cohenās staff to Mitchellās staff; Cohenās feelings about Hastingsās move to Mitchellās office; state and national issues; Kahlil Gibran; Cohenās and Mitchellās leadership styles with their office staff; the staff atmosphere around Mitchellās 1982 election; the Mikulski Commission; the 1982 election; Mitchellās staff, including Jane OāConnor, Regina Sullivan, and Gayle Cory; relationship between the Mitchell staff and the Cohen staff; Men of Zeal and the Iran-Contra scandal; Pat Cadell; Jim Tierney; Mitchell and Arab American groups; John Linnehan; anecdote about placing a large photo of George Mitchell in his Maine campaign office during the 1982 campaign; driving Muskie around; and Margaret Chase Smith coming back to Washington to celebrate her birthday with Mitchell.
Date: 2009-05-06
Creator: Sheila P Burke
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Sheila Burke was born and raised in San Francisco, California. She earned a B.S. in nursing at the University of San Francisco (class of 1973) and a masterās degree in public administration from Harvard University. She started working for Senator Dole in May of 1977 to handle health issues on the Senate Finance Committee. A Democrat from California, she was hired due to her prior experience as a nurse with a hands-on understanding of patient care. She became deputy chief of staff in the leaderās office when Senator Dole became minority leader in 1985 and rose to chief of staff in 1986, remaining in that role for ten years until Doleās retirement; she served a dual role as secretary of the Senate from January to June of 1995. From 1996-2000, she was executive dean and lecturer in public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 2000, she joined the Smithsonian Institution, where she rose to the position of deputy secretary and COO until 2007. At the time of this interview, she was a member of the faculty at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and lecturer at Georgetown Universityās Public Policy Institute. She is married and has three children.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell and the Senate Finance Committee; Burkeās interest in working for Dole and how she came to be hired; first impressions of George Mitchell; the relationships between Senators Dole and Mitchell, Burke and Martha Pope; tax battles on the Finance Committee; Mitchellās approach to legislating; Doleās transition to leader; balancing Senate staff and leader staff interests; the easy working relationship between Dole and Mitchell as leaders and how that compared with Senator Byrd; health care reform and difficult issues surrounding the debate; the issues that Dole and Mitchell had in common and where they differed; Doleās and Mitchellās relationships to the White House; the role of partisanship and values; Burkeās experience of being criticized by conservatives in the Senate and the press; Mitchellās expressing his sympathy for Burke on the occasion of Senator Packwoodās resignation; Burkeās reaction to Mitchellās decision to retire; the Dole-Mitchell era in the Senate and how those two leaders maintained one anotherās trust, elevated the discourse, and were evenly matched; where the Republican Party of 2009 will look for leadership; and Burkeās wish that Mitchell could return to work on the present attempt at health care reform.