Showing 1 - 8 of 8 Items
Date: 2010-05-17
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: Iran-Contra and writing Men of Zeal; clean air; acid rain; long term health care; spousal impoverishment; how the press office operated; the national press; the “dugout” on the Senate floor; Clarence Thomas hearings; CODELs; Foreign travel: Canada, Mexico, Soviet Union, Germany, Middle East; health care debate; and relationship with Bob Dole.
Date: 2010-04-29
Creator: Edward 'Ed' M Bonney
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Edward Mason “Ed” Bonney was born April 5, 1933, in Buckfield, Maine, and grew up in Lisbon Falls, Maine. His parents, Mason Turner and Beatrice Evelyn (Dean) Bonney, were Roosevelt Democrats. Ed served four years in the Air Force and later became an air traffic controller in New York for several years. He and his wife moved back to Maine to raise their family and became involved in Maine Democratic politics. Ed served as chair of the Cumberland County Democratic Committee, where he first met George Mitchell, and later was executive director of the Maine Democratic Party when Mitchell was state chair. He served as executive director of the Maine State Bar Association for twenty-five years.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: family and educational background; WWII recollections; work as an air traffic controller; John F. Kennedy; involvement in Democratic politics in Maine; Mitchell’s time as chair of the Maine Democratic Party; Ken Curtis; description of George Mitchell in the late ‘60s; Severin Beliveau; Democratic National Convention (1968); Maine State Bar Association and continuing legal education; descriptions of Ed Muskie and George Mitchell; driving Senator Mitchell; and changes to the Maine Democratic Party.
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: 2009-05-26
Creator: Regina Sullivan
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Regina Sullivan was born on January 16, 1957, to Richard and Julia Sullivan in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in Washington, DC. Her father was chief counsel to the House Public Works and Transportation Committee and her mother ran a nonprofit organization called Candle Lighters Childhood Cancer Foundation. Regina was graduated from Bishop Dennis J. O’Connell High School and went on to Regis University in Denver, Colorado, where she received a degree in economics. During her senior year of college, she worked for Denver Mayor Bill McNichols. After graduation she returned to Washington, D.C., where she took a temporary job in Senator Ed Muskie’s office. She worked there for approximately four months helping the receptionist and doing filing. She went back to Denver to help run a city council race, and then decided to move back to Washington as a legislative correspondent in Muskie’s office. She stayed on when Mitchell was appointed to fill Muskie’s vacant Senate seat. When Charlie Jacobs came on staff as head of scheduling, she became his assistant. She worked on scheduling in Maine for the 1982 campaign; after Mitchell won the seat, she returned to Washington and worked as the deputy press secretary, later going back to the front office to do scheduling and worked as a liaison between Mitchell’s Senate staff and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) staff. In 1986 she left Mitchell’s office and started a government relations firm, now R. Sullivan & Associates, where she continued to work at the time of this interview.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Regis University; starting work in Senator Muskie’s office; working on a city council race in Denver, Colorado; working for Mayor McNichols in Denver; learning about Congress while growing up in Washington, D.C.; working as a legislative correspondent for Muskie; the transition in the office when Mitchell was appointed to fill Muskie’s seat; the degree of changeover or continuity in staff between Muskie and Mitchell; Mitchell’s first Banking Committee hearing and Senator Proxmire’s praise of his performance; working on Mitchell’s scheduling in Maine; working in Maine on the 1982 election; Mitchell’s work ethic, especially on the campaign; Mitchell’s relationship with Senator Cohen; 1982 U.S. Senate campaign and David Emery; moving over to the press office; the complications that arose from Mitchell’s attempts to travel back to Maine every weekend; Mitchell’s relationship with the women on his staff; the “fun times” they had on the campaign; commiserating with other senators’ schedulers; what Sullivan learned from and respected about Senators Muskie and Mitchell; the increasing partisanship on Capitol Hill; and Mitchell’s ability to see other opportunities to do public service beyond his Senate career.
Date: 2010-05-20
Creator: Jane F O'Connor
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Jane Frances O’Connor was born on March 13, 1960, in Augusta, Maine. She was one of twelve children born to Barbara Louise (Murray) and Dr. Francis J. O’Connor, both from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Her father was head of radiology at Augusta General Hospital; her mother was an artist and musician who stayed at home while her children were young. After growing up in Augusta in a nonpolitical family, Jane attended the University of Southern Maine and, later, Trinity College in Washington, DC. In the summer of 1980, she became an intern for Beverly Bustin-Hatheway, accompanying her around the state as a field representative for Senator George Mitchell, and she spent much of the summer helping pack up Senator Muskie’s papers for repository retention. In June 1981, O’Connor accepted a full time position as receptionist in Senator Mitchell’s office in Washington, DC, remaining in that position for about eight years. After Mitchell’s departure from the Senate, she went to work for a trade association.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Beverly Bustin’s state legislative campaign; Senate office staff in DC; Mitchell’s sense of humor; telephone story; bread story; brownies story; description of Senator Mitchell’s various offices and staff roles; Mitchell’s Senate retirement; his frugality; the apartment/video store story; Mitchell Institute; Gayle Cory; Martha Pope; and education of staff.
Date: 2009-09-11
Creator: Patricia 'Pat' A Sarcone
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Patricia Ann Sarcone was born in Newport, Rhode Island. She grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and was graduated from St. Mary College in Leavenworth, Kansas, with a degree in business administration. In 1969 she joined Iowa Senator Harold Hughes’s staff in Washington, DC, where she remained until 1975. She then worked on Iowa Senator John Culver’s staff until 1980, when she joined Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign. She worked for Occidental International before joining Senator George Mitchell’s staff in 1988, working as Mitchell’s executive assistant until he retired in 1994, when she transitioned to work for Senator Tom Daschle.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: role on Iowa Senator Harold Hughes’s staff; recollections of the Humphrey-Muskie campaign; working on Mondale’s presidential campaign; Sarcone’s joining Senator Mitchell’s staff and transitioning into Gayle Cory’s job as executive assistant to Mitchell; role and responsibilities as executive assistant; Monday morning meetings with the staff; Mitchell’s schedule; the Majority Leader’s Office; relationship between his personal office and the Majority Leader Office; women on staff; mood in the office when Mitchell announced his retirement; the transition to Senator Tom Daschle; Mitchell’s relationship with Senator Bob Dole; and Mitchell’s legacy.
Date: 2009-08-17
Creator: Lula J Davis
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Lula Johnson Davis was born in Potash, Louisiana. Her mother was a homemaker and her father worked in construction. She was awarded bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern University in Louisiana and married a Howard University professor, which brought her to Washington, D.C. She served as a legislative correspondent for Senator Russell Long in Washington, D.C., from 1980-1987 and later became an assistant for the Democratic Policy Committee’s floor staff office. In 1993, she began working for the Democratic floor staff and in 1995 rose to the position of chief floor assistant. From 1997 to 2008, she was assistant secretary for the Democratic Party and in 2008 was voted secretary for the majority.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: how Davis got to Washington, DC; her work as legislative correspondent for Senator Russell Long; description of Senator Long; Davis’s job with the Democratic Policy Committee; working on the Senate Floor; working for Byrd; transition from Byrd to Mitchell within the Democratic Policy Committee; how the culture in the Senate has changed; voting procedures; difference between secretary of the Senate and secretary for the majority; George Mitchell’s legacy; the transition from Mitchell to Daschle; changes in the nature of Democratic leadership; changes in the nature of Republican leadership; Clinton impeachment; role of women in the Senate culture, including Martha Pope, Shelia Burke, and Anita Jensen.
Date: 2010-05-04
Creator: Barbara A Mikulski
Access: Open access
Biographial Note
Barbara Ann Mikulski was born on July 20, 1936, and grew up in the Highlandtown neighborhood of East Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Mount Saint Agnes College and received her M.S.W. from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She became a social worker, community organizer, and Baltimore city councilor, and she made an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1974 before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. After serving in the House for ten years, she ran for the U.S. Senate in 1986, becoming the first elected woman Democratic U.S. senator. She has won numerous re-elections and continued to serve in the Senate as its longest-serving female senator at the time of this interview.
Summary
Interview includes discussion of: Mikulski’s run for the Senate in 1986 and Mitchell’s DSCC role in supporting her campaign; Mitchell dancing with Mikulski at a fund raiser; Mikulski’s reception in the Senate as a female senator; Mikulski-Mitchell ‘spousal impoverishment’ amendment; committee assignments during Mikulski’s first term; women in Congress; DSCC Women’s Senate Network; women’s issues worth legislating and fighting for in the Senate; Mitchell’s qualities as a leader; common constituent interests among ‘coastal senators;’ NAFTA; how Mitchell related to women; Mikulski’s reaction to Mitchell’s retirement from the Senate; Mitchell’s legacy as Senate leader.