Showing 1 - 2 of 2 Items
Date: 2008-08-19
Creator: James 'Jim' W Case
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
James W. “Jim” Case was born on June 21, 1945, in Chicopee, Massachusetts. His father was a firefighter and his mother was a homemaker who raised seven children; Jim was the fourth of five boys. His family was Irish-German Catholic, and his parents were involved in local politics. He grew up in a blue-collar mill town with a good public educational system; he attended Clark University, where he majored in psychology. He was drafted in November 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War and served two years as an administrator in a physical therapy clinic at an Army hospital. Subsequently, he attended the University of Maine School of Law, became active in politics as co-chair of the local Kennedy campaign committee, and developed an interest in labor law. He also worked on George Mitchell’s gubernatorial campaign in 1974. After law school he went to Washington, DC to work in Senator Muskie’s office, first as assistant counsel to the Committee on Environment and Public Works, which involved economic development and environmental policy, and later as legislative director. He was Senator Mitchell’s first administrative assistant, a post he held until 1981. At the time of this interview he was a partner in the McTeague, Higbee, Case, Cohen, Whitney & Toker law firm.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: 1972 Muskie presidential primary race; 1974 Maine gubernatorial race; factors that contributed to the results of the 1974 election; Mitchell on the campaign trail; Mitchell’s role in Muskie’s 1976 reelection campaign; how Mitchell came to be appointed U.S. attorney and later a federal judge; the transition in the Senate office when Muskie moved over to the State Department; Mitchell getting committee assignments; issues he worked on in his first year of office; Finance Committee deregulation of the banking industry; Case’s predicting that Mitchell would be Democratic leader; Senate prayer breakfasts; Case’s bringing David Johnson in to replace himself when he left in 1981; Mitchell’s accessibility to Mainers and commitment to Maine; and the mutual loyalty between Senator Mitchell and his staff.
Date: 2008-09-08
Creator: Mary Mitchell Friedman, Harold J Friedman
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Mary (Mitchell) Friedman was born on September 30, 1957, in Waterville, Maine, one of seven siblings and niece to George Mitchell. Her father, Robert “Robbie” Mitchell, worked for the FDIC, and her mother, Janet (Fraser) Mitchell, was an elementary school teacher. Mary grew up in Waterville, attending St. Joseph’s school, Waterville Junior High School, Waterville High School, and then she continued on to Colby College. She earned her law degree from the University of Maine School of Law and practiced law for approximately fifteen years. She spent three years in Washington, D.C. as a trial lawyer for the Constitution Torts Division at the Department of Justice and later returned to Maine. She has served on the board of the Mitchell Institute since its founding in 1995, and has been chair for eight years. Harold Friedman was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on December 4, 1942. He grew up in Detroit and attended Wayne State University, then earned his law degree from Boston University. In 1975, while he was a federal prosecutor in New York, he went to Maine and met George Mitchell, who recommended him to the law firm Preti Flaherty, where he was subsequently hired. He met Mary Mitchell there, and they later were married. At the time of this interview, he was a trial lawyer with the firm Friedman, Gaythwaite, Wolf & Leavitt in Portland, Maine.
Summary
Interview includes discussions of: family history at Colby College; founding the Mitchell Institute; the Mitchell Institute’s intent and expansion; higher education in Maine; Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement; life with the Mitchell family in Waterville; cribbage; the 1968 presidential election and the younger generation of the Mitchell family being politically active; Hubert Humphrey’s visit to Mrs. Mitchell; volunteering for the Muskie presidential campaign in 1972; the 1974 Maine gubernatorial campaign; George Mitchell’s campaign strategy for his senate campaign; growing up in Detroit; summer work on Martha’s Vineyard and the Kennedy presence there; George Mitchell’s accessibility; and the Mitchell family’s roots shaping their commitment to public service.