Showing 31 - 40 of 436 Items
Date: 2010-04-22
Creator: Kelly T Currie
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Kelly T. Currie was born on September 11, 1963, in Lewistown, Montana, to Edmund and Bette Currie, and grew up in Farmington, Maine. His father was a professor at the University of Maine, Farmington and his mother was a nurse. He attended the University of Virginia and was graduated in 1986, serving a summer internship with Senator Mitchell’s office between his junior and senior year. In the fall of 1986, he worked on Jim Tierney’s Maine gubernatorial campaign. He joined Senator Mitchell’s Senate staff full-time in January of 1987 as a legislative correspondent dealing with finance, defense, and veterans’ affairs issues. He later transitioned to the position of deputy press secretary, focusing on the Maine press and Maine issues. At the time of this interview he was deputy chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the eastern district of New York.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: childhood and educational background; summer intern in Senator Mitchell’s office; legislative correspondent and issues; deputy press secretary; driving for Mitchell and talking sports; Senate majority leader race; 1992 presidential campaign; extensive description of the Northern Ireland peace process; Iran-Contra; Sharm-el Sheikh; 1988 Senate reelection campaign; the Maine press; and Mitchell’s sense of humor.
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; Cole’s legal career; Maine Republican Party; zoning acts in Maine; Plum Creek; George Mitchell’s legal career; Republican and Democratic politics in Maine; Republican National Committee; Maine work ethic; Mitchell’s senatorial career; Governor Haley Barbour; running for district attorney general; Mitchell’s public transformation; and Mitchell’s politics.
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 master’s 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 leader’s 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 Dole’s 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 University’s Public Policy Institute. She is married and has three children.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: George Mitchell and the Senate Finance Committee; Burke’s 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; Mitchell’s approach to legislating; Dole’s 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; Dole’s and Mitchell’s relationships to the White House; the role of partisanship and values; Burke’s experience of being criticized by conservatives in the Senate and the press; Mitchell’s expressing his sympathy for Burke on the occasion of Senator Packwood’s resignation; Burke’s reaction to Mitchell’s decision to retire; the Dole-Mitchell era in the Senate and how those two leaders maintained one another’s trust, elevated the discourse, and were evenly matched; where the Republican Party of 2009 will look for leadership; and Burke’s wish that Mitchell could return to work on the present attempt at health care reform.
Date: 2009-06-18
Creator: Robert 'Bob' W Packwood
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Robert W. “Bob” Packwood was born on September 11, 1932, in Portland, Oregon. He attended Willamette University, graduating in 1954, and the New York University School of Law, subsequently returning to Oregon to practice law. From 1963 to 1968, he was a member of the Oregon legislature, and in 1968 he won election to the U.S. Senate, serving five terms as a Republican. He chaired the Senate Finance Committee from 1985 to 1987 and was active in passing the Tax Reform Acts of 1986 and 1995. He resigned from his Senate seat in 1995. Later he founded Sunrise Research Corporation, a lobbying firm based in New York.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: meeting George Mitchell; how committee assignments are given; Mitchell’s superior leadership abilities that earned him a quick rise to the Senate leadership; Packwood’s electoral history; similarities between Oregon and Maine; capital gains and the Tax Reform Act of 1986; the Republican caucus’s view of Mitchell; qualities that make a good Senate leader; comparing Mitchell to Byrd; Mitchell’s pragmatic and strategic approach to legislating; the different roles of the House and the Senate; what the majority leader job consisted of for Mitchell; Mitchell on the Finance Committee; 1990 Budget Enforcement Act; the Clinton administration’s struggle with health care reform, the Republican opposition, and Mitchell’s role; the Clean Air Act, the NAFTA, round two of GATT, and earmarks; Packwood’s 1992 reelection race; the 1994 elections and the Contract for America; Mitchell’s Senate retirement; the period of Packwood’s resignation; Packwood’s brand of Republicanism; how Packwood would describe Mitchell on the political spectrum; an anecdote about when Mitchell was dating Packwood’s chief of staff, Janet Mullins; and Mitchell’s ability to focus on the end result.
Date: 2010-02-17
Creator: Diane Dewhirst
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Diane Dewhirst was born on May 28, 1957, in Framingham, Massachusetts, to Joan Priscilla Audubon and Robert Thornton Dewhirst. She grew up in Boston and Philadelphia. Her father worked in sales for an energy firm. Majoring in journalism at the University of Ohio and then transferring to Northwestern, she was graduated with a degree in political science. She worked on Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign in 1976, as an intern for Common Cause, the Democratic National Committee, and briefly for ABC News on delegate selection rules, covering the 1984 presidential election. She then became press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which George Mitchell chaired, and later joined Mitchell’s press staff, where she served as his communications director for over ten years. At the time of this interview, she was senior advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; early interest in politics; work on the DNC (Democratic National Committee); meeting Senator Mitchell as a part of the Compliance Review Committee of the DNC; her work for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) under Mitchell; Mitchell and the press; Mitchell’s relationship with the press in Maine; Mitchell’s divorce; and the transition from being a member of the personal staff to the majority leader’s staff; oil spill legislation; spousal impoverishment legislation; and linking clean air issues with the health care debate.
Date: 2009-06-10
Creator: Paula D Silsby
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Paula D. Silsby was born on June 1, 1951, in Bangor, Maine, to Ruth Blaisdell and Herbert Trafton Silsby II; her father was an attorney practicing at Silsby & Silsby and became a superior court judge. Paula was graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1973 and the University of Maine Law School in 1976. From 1977 to 2001, she served as assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maine, and as chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office from 1994 to 2001. She has received the Caroline Duby Glassman Award from the Maine Bar Association, Attorney General Janet Reno’s Director’s Award for Executive Achievement, and the Deborah Morton Award from the University of New England. In 2001 she was appointed U.S. attorney for the District of Maine on an interim basis by Attorney General John Ashcroft. She was reappointed and continued to serve in that capacity at the time of this interview.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Silsby’s family background in law; Paula’s family’s role in Maine politics; Paula’s experiences at Mount Holyoke College; how Paula met George Mitchell while he was campaigning for governor in 1974; her internship for Peter Mills while she was in law school at the University of Maine; Silsby’s clerkship at the Superior Court in Portland; meeting George Mitchell as a clerk for the Superior Court; how Paula was hired to work for George Mitchell when he became U.S. attorney in 1977; what Mitchell was like as a boss; how Jay McCloskey began working for Mitchell; working for Bill Brownell; Silsby’s reaction to Mitchell’s appointment to the U.S. Senate; description of work in the U.S. Attorney’s Office under Mitchell; and Mitchell’s style in the courtroom.
Date: 2008-07-29
Creator: Jeffrey 'Jeff' Nathanson
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jeffrey “Jeff” Nathanson was born on July 10, 1958, in Biddeford, Maine, to Toby Yetta Nathanson and Jon Allen Nathanson. His family owned a fast food drive-in called Toby’s Drive-In, near Thornton Academy, along with a food stand in Old Orchard Beach; his parents sold Toby’s in 1997. Jeff attended Thornton Academy, graduating in 1976, and continued his education at Williams College; he majored in biology with a minor in environmental studies, graduating in 1980. He worked on Harold Pachios’s congressional campaign. Through Jim Case, he was hired as a part-time elevator operator for Senators Mitchell and Byrd in Washington, DC; he was later hired to run the mail operation for Mitchell’s 1982 election and was promoted to legislative assistant. After the election, he traveled throughout Europe before attending both Boston University and the University of Maine Law School. Following law school he held a number of positions at Maine Savings Bank, Fleet, and TD Banknorth. At the time of this interview he was on the board for the Cromwell Center for Disabilities, president of the Cancer Community Center in Maine, and working with Special Olympics.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: childhood and educational background; running elevators on Capitol Hill; Senator Mitchell’s mailroom during the 1982 election; serving as a legislative assistant until the spring of 1983; other staff in the office; and description of Mitchell personality and qualities.
Date: 2009-10-16
Creator: Thomas 'Tom' J Nale
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Thomas J. “Tom” Nale was born on December 19, 1947, in Bangor Maine, to Melvin Travis and Caroline Theresa Nale. He is a second cousin of George Mitchell; his grandmother and George Mitchell’s mother were sisters. Nale was graduated from Thomas College and then taught at the Maine Central Institute for four years before going to law school at the Franklin Pierce Law Center. In 1986, Nale ran for mayor of Waterville, Maine, and served for two years before returning to his law practice.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: the Mitchell family’s Lebanese heritage and being Lebanese in Waterville; the familial connections between the Nale, Baldacci, and Mitchell families; the importance of athletics to the Mitchell family; the Maronite Church; Nale’s time as mayor of Waterville; recollections of Senator Mitchell’s father and mother; the Jabar family; the Danny Thomas show and Tom’s grandfather; the importance of education in the Lebanese community; and the Middle East peace process.
Date: 2010-06-03
Creator: Gary B Myrick
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Gary Blendon Myrick was born on July 20, 1967, in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, to Carol and Warren Myrick. He attended the University of Maine and worked as a page in the Maine legislature during his final year of undergraduate studies. He worked as an intern in Senator Mitchell’s U.S. Senate office, answering mail and telephones, and in 1990 he was hired as a staff assistant in the personal office, moved to answering phones in Mitchell’s leadership office, and then took a position in the Senate Cloakroom. He earned his law degree from American University. From 1995-2003, he joined the Senate Floor Staff under Senator Tom Daschle. At the time of this interview he was chief of staff for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; internship in Senator Mitchell’s office; answering phones in the leadership office; description of the Senate Cloakroom and job responsibilities; majority leader comparisons and changes; Mitchell’s strength of speaking on the Senate floor; transitions from Republican to Democratic White House and vice versa; Mitchell’s decision to retire from the Senate; scheduling; Senator Tom Daschle; Senator Harry Reid; filibusters; and changes in the Senate culture.
Date: 2008-05-01
Creator: Mary E McAleney
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Mary 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. Joseph’s 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. Joseph’s 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 Muskie’s ‘76 campaign and worked for state Senator Jim Tierney. She served in George Mitchell’s U.S. Senate office for ten years (1984-1994), focusing on Maine issues.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: George Mitchell’s dedication to and impact on Maine as senator and majority leader; opportunities for young people within Mitchell’s 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; Mitchell’s understanding of human nature; Martha Pope; relationship between Pope and Mitchell; Loring Air Force Base and its closure; Paul Haines; Bob Corolla; McAleney’s introduction to the Mitchell staff and her job definition; Gayle Cory and her “wits and know-how”; Mitchell’s Senate Pioneer Scholarship; Mitchell’s 1982 campaign; and driving stories.