Showing 1 - 2 of 2 Items
Date: 2009-07-13
Creator: J Bennett Johnston
Access: Open access
Biographical Note
Bennett Johnston was born June 10, 1932, in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was graduated from West Point United States Military Academy and served in the Judge Advocate Corps in Germany between 1956 and 1959. He won a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1964 and in the state Senate in 1968. In 1971, he ran for governor of Louisiana but was defeated in the runoff election. When the U.S Senate seat came up for election in 1972, he ran as a Democrat and won, receiving 54% of the vote, and he was continuously reelected to the Senate until retiring in 1997. He sought the role of majority leader in 1989 but lost to Mitchell. In 1997, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame. Since leaving the Senate, he has been a lobbyist in Washington, DC. At the time of this interview, he was serving as a government affairs and public policy advisor for Steptoe & Johnson and for his firm Johnston & Associates.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: coming into the Senate in 1972 and the campaign; the Senate becoming partisan; the Democratic Party in the South; partisanship and changes in the Senate; becoming chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; disappointments with Carter; the surprise of the 1980 election; the race against Mitchell for majority leader and Mitchell’s victory; Mitchell’s leadership and link to the White House; factions within the Democratic Party; the DG-51 Destroyer Maine-versus-Louisiana issue; the ’91 and ’92 energy bills; the BTU tax; reasons for leaving the Senate; and reflections on Mitchell.
Date: 2010-03-15
Creator: L. Sandy Maisel
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Louis "Sandy" Maisel was born on October 25, 1945, in Buffalo, New York. He attended Harvard, where he became involved with various campus and political organizations, and Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in political science. In 1971 he settled in Maine, working on Bill Hathaway’s campaign for Senate, teaching at Colby College, and volunteering for Maine Democrats, including George Mitchell. In 1977, Maisel was the research director for the House Commission on Administrative Review. In 1978, he ran unsuccessfully in the congressional primary in Maine. At the time of this interview he was professor of government at Colby College and director of its Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family background and education and political upbringing; an anecdote about his father getting a telegram to have dinner with President Truman; Buffalo, New York; Harvard as compared to Yale and small liberal arts colleges like Colby; Louise Day Hicks; protests when Maisel was at Columbia in the late 1960s; his doctoral dissertation on housing policy in Congress; the political scene at Colby College; Waterville, Maine in 1971 and today; mill town politics in Waterville; working on Bill Hathaway’s campaign in 1972; George Heffernan; monitoring moving votes precinct by precinct; doing publicity for Max McCarthy in New York; organizing Colby students to volunteer for Mitchell; Mitchell and Joe Brennan; Mitchell’s 1974 campaign; Maisel’s 1978 run for Congress; the Obey Commission; Emery’s appeal in a general election; Maine politics; writing From Obscurity to Oblivion; politics in northern Maine versus southern Maine, and the congressional districts; Maisel’s view on the candidates in 2010 Maine state elections; campaign financing in Maine and the Clean Election law; the press’s impact in statewide politics; Mitchell’s joke about Colby and Bowdoin; Mitchell’s role in Middle East affairs; Mitchell and his brother “Swisher’; and Mitchell’s image at Colby.