James Albertus McClure was born on December 27, 1924, in Payette, Idaho. McClure served in the United States Navy during World War II, earned a J.D. degree from the University of Idaho in 1950, and subsequently returned to Payette where he practiced law with his father, W.R. McClure, and served as city attorney before being elected Payette County prosecuting attorney. A Republican, McClure was sent to the Idaho state senate for three terms, 1961-1966, and in the latter year was elected to the United States Congress from the lst District of Idaho (the northern panhandle and the southwestern quarter of the state), being reelected in 1968 and 1970.
In 1972, Idaho elected McClure to the United States Senate, and reelected him in 1978 and 1984. His service in both House and Senate reflected the public lands and natural resource issues of interest to his constituents. His committee assignments included the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee; the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, of which he was chairman 1981-1987 and thereafter the ranking minority member; the Interior Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee; the Senate Rules Committee; the Senate Republican Steering Committee; and the Helsinki Commission on Human Rights. In 1987 he served on the Senate Select Committee to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair.
McClure married the former Louise Miller of Nezperce, Idaho, a fellow student at the University of Idaho, and the couple raised three children, Marilyn, Kenneth, and David.
McClure declined to run for reelection in 1990 and upon his retirement from the Senate he entered a partnership with his former legislative director and administrative assistant, forming McClure, Gerard, & Neuenschwander, Inc., a Washington, D.C. consulting firm. Senator and Louise McClure made their retirement home in Boise, Idaho.
The papers of James A. McClure span the years 1961 to 1995, with the majority of the material dating from the years 1967 through 1990 when he served first in the United States House of Representatives and then in the United States Senate from Idaho. The overwhelming bulk of the collection comprises the records of McClure's Congressional and Senatorial office staffs, including, in the Senatorial period, records of his Idaho offices. The is little relating to McClure's life outside of politics and public service.
Among record types are correspondence; newspaper clippings; photographs; sound and video recordings; speeches, including many drafts; memoranda; mailing lists; legislative material such as bills sponsored by McClure and by others, reports, and related documents; Congressional Record inserts; news releases; invitations and responses; and other records, including associated printed materials. Correspondents include the presidents and vice presidents of the United States during McClure's terms in office, as well as other senators and congressmen, governors of Idaho, other federal and state officials, and members of the public, who were overwhelmingly his constituents in Idaho. There is also a significant amount of material relating to McClure's campaigns for election and his participation in the elections of others. Topics include virtually every matter of public interest in Idaho during McClure's terms, as well as a significant volume of material reflecting national and international affairs, especially in regard to energy resources. The collection is particularly strong concerning politics in Idaho and concerning management of federal lands and natural resource policies, nationally, but especially as they affect Idaho. Well represented are policies concerning mining, timber, grazing, energy, water and irrigation, and wilderness and outdoor recreation, as well as other natural resource and environmental matters. There are also small quantities of material reflecting McClure's service in the Idaho state senate, 1961-1966, and some of his public service activities after leaving the United States Senate in 1990.
The arrangement of the collection reflects, to the extent practicable, the filing systems employed over a quarter century in McClure's office. Thus, very prominent are the evolutions in the original subject arrangement which McClure adopted soon after opening his Congressional office and the partial revolution that took place when a computerized correspondence system was adopted midway in his Senatorial career.
Senator McClure donated this collection to the University of Idaho by deed of gift dated July 13, 1990 and the material was shipped by United States mail from each of his offices and received between July 1990 and January 1991. A very small amount of material, mostly concerning McClure's post-senatorial activities, was forwarded from the Washington, D.C., office of McClure, Gerard and Neuenschwander, Inc., in 1995. While title transferred to the university, Senator McClure retained copyright during his lifetime to materials written by himself or his staff.
Collection is open for research.
The congressional papers of Senator James A. McClure were donated to the University of Idaho Library by the Senator upon his retirement from the U.S. Senate in 1990.
[Description of Item], James A. McClure papers, MG 400, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, Idaho.
The papers were processed by Andrew Arconti, Chris Karn, Ken Lahners, Chelsea Leeds, Judy Nielsen, Shannon Roberts, Kate Schlack, Wendy Steele, Anna Thomas, Molly Viola, John Whitmer, and Wilma Woods-Davis, under the direction of Richard C. Davis, between 1991 and 2002.
Records of McClure's service in the Idaho State Senate, 1961-1966, which were kept in his Washington, D.C., office after he became United States Representative and later Senator. They consist mostly of letters and telegrams from constituents as well as reports to the various legislative committees of which he was a member. Some of the principal issues represented in the collection are education, legislative reapportionment, junior colleges, sales tax, and taxation. Legislative committees represented include Judiciary and Rules, Municipal Affairs, and Public Health and Welfare. Arrangement is alphabetical.
For fourteen years until adoption of a computerized Correspondence Management System in 1981, McClure's office followed the method of filing papers prescribed in the manual issued by the National Archives' Office of Records Management,
A continuously repeating series that begins anew with each annual Congressional session, the Subject File includes incoming letters, carbon or photo copies of outgoing letters, copies of printed bills, staff memoranda, and other documents, filed under prescribed headings and subheadings, running alphabetically from "Academies" through "Veterans," each heading and subheading being identified with a code composed of an abbreviation and a number designating the subheading. This code appears on the folders and often on the papers. There are sixty-four prescribed major headings, although not all seem to have been used by McClure's office and several additional headings were devised as occasion required. Correspondents include political leaders and agencies of government, as well as constituents. There are also portions of the working files of some of McClure's legislative assistants, filed under appropriate topical headings.
Certain topical categories provided for in the
Between 1975 and 1981, after McClure became a member of the United States Senate, he had most of his House Subject File microfilmed by the Senate Microfilm Center on 16 mm. film contained in cartridges. There is a paper Microfilm Index filed under "Administration: Miscellaneous" (Series 2.5.4) for 1981 which gives cassette locations for Subject File categories for each Congress. For reasons discussed in "Notes on Appraisal," the contents of the microfilm often differ from the contents of the paper records.
The
The
Of the four principal subseries, "Admin 1 Personnel" consists not of files on individual employees, but rather of miscellaneous correspondence and other material related to applicants for lower staff positions. There are also occasional letters from former employees, including some who had ascended to other significant positions in government.
"Admin 2 Records (Files)" is a fairly random assortment of materials relating to records-keeping, such as correspondence anticipating the eventual disposition of McClure's papers, an annotated copy of the files handbook, memoranda concerning members' accounts with the House Sergeant at Arms office, McClure's required financial disclosure statements, and instructions on taking casework over the telephone.
"Admin 2-1 Personal" is a category designed by the
"Admin 3 Space" concerns parking space and office space. It includes floor plans, correspondence and memoranda on room assignments, charts showing office layout and desk assignments, and records on remodeling, decorations, and equipment.
"Admin 4 Supplies--Equipment--Service" was initially by far the bulkiest part of the Administration files, consisting of records of expenses, such as reproduction work, postage, stationery, telephone, and travel, as well as inventories. These files document office operations, what might broadly be called public relations, and travel by McClure and staff members. There was correspondence, memoranda, bills, receipts, price lists, printed regulations, inventories, and vouchers, relating to typewriters, address machines, and other equipment.
The microfilm of the Subject File contains copies of "Administration" records only for 1970-1972.
Much additional material related to that in Admin 2-1 Personal may be found in series 4.0, McClure's Personal files.
CMS, implemented in 1981, included "Administrative" as a "type" of document and "Office Management" as a topic. Office Management covered routine or housekeeping records such as most of the present series. However, copies of CMS letters found here often have attachments not duplicated in the CMS Daily Files.
Memos, correspondence, and other material relating to implementation of the office automation system as authorized by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration in December 1982 and provided by Prime Computer, Inc. In part, concerns a Senate Rules Committee investigation of the Sergeant at Arms Office's oversight of the Senate Computer Center. These records in the first years reflect Claire Cummings, office manager, but primarily concern Susan Tackish, who was Systems Administrator, Bookkeeper, and, after 1988, Special Assistant to the Administrative Assistant.
This series comprises loose records (1983-1990) and account books, (1967-1990). The former consists of the files of Margaret Lliteras, bookkeeper from 1979 until 1984, and her successor, Susan Tackish, who combined bookkeeping with the positions of CMS Specialist/Systems Administrator. Like Admin 4: Supplies-Equipment-Service, this subseries was severely reduced by discard of bills and vouchers relating to office expenses.
The account books include notebook binder records (1967-1979, 7 folders) summarizing office operations and supplies; McClure's travel expenses, honorariums, and Capitol Hill Club expenses; as well as recording and reproduction expenses, staff travel, and other expenses. Beginning in 1975 and overlapping in time with these relatively informal binder/account books are columnar bound journals (1975-1983, 2 vols.), more conventionally recording receipts, deposits, and disbursements, and providing a distribution of expenses. The function of these bound account books is continued by the "official ledger sheets" filed for each year 1984-1990 among the loose records described above.
Included in this series are sequences of five kinds of records:
(1) Office manuals and file codes, etc.
(2) Telephone logs (1978-1990). Stenographer's notebooks listing both incoming and outgoing calls, sometimes brief notes on message, and note on response, or initials of staff member who handled call.
(3) Telephone messages (1978-1983). Printed forms, 4x5", titled "Memorandum of Call," providing names and numbers of incoming calls taken during McClure's absence, and intended to notify McClure, and occasionally other staff members, of incoming calls. They often include notes on messages left, occasionally with note of McClure's response. Sometimes, but not always, the same calls were recorded in the telephone logs. There are also a few calls recorded on larger sheets, including lists of "pending calls" (for MClure to return), and comments by staff. In the Subject File for 1974-1979 are also books of these telephone message slips. Altogether, this is an incomplete record of calls received, even of the few years covered, but sometimes these slips provide evidence of the substance of otherwise unrecorded telephone communications.
(4) Staff newsletter (1978-1990). Washington, D.C. and state offices newsletters.
(5) Reception room guest books (1967-1990). The guest books do not provide a daily record of whom McClure met or saw, but are simply a partial record of persons who visited his office.
Comparison with McClure's calendars shows that rarely did anyone who had an appointment with McClure sign the guest books. One function the Guest Books did fulfill, however, was to generate a list of Idaho visitors. It seems to have been the practice that, if McClure did not see his constituent visitor, his office would send a follow-up letter (see
As directed by the
During his first term in Congress, 1967-1968, McClure filed A&C material in the Annual Subject File (Series 2.1). Thereafter, since the Subject File was renewed each year while the legislative functions of Congress operated in biennial cycles, only a few records, mostly of a general nature, continued to be placed in the Annual Subject File under A&C, and records of the substantive legislative issues the committees considered were maintained in the present physically separate series, arranged by biennial Congress. For Congressional committees lacking legislative responsibilities, the records of some (such as the Senate Steering Committee and the Committee on Committees) continued in the Annual Subject File, while records of others (like the Joint Economic Committee), went into the biennial A & C subseries. There does not seem to have been a specific rule governing this filing practice.
This biennial A & C subseries contains records relating to the following committees: House Interior & Insular Affairs, 1969-1972; House Post Office & Civil Service, 1969-1972; Senate Interior & Insular Affairs, 1973-1976; Senate Public Works, 1973-1976; Senate Veterans Affairs, 1973-1974; Republican Senate Campaign Committee, 1973-1974; Senate Energy & Natural Resources, 1977-1982; Senate Budget, 1975-1978; Senate Environment & Public Works, 1977-1978; Joint Economic Committee, 1977-1980; Senate Appropriations, 1979-1982; and Senate Rules & Administration, 1981-1982. For the most part, for each committee there are general files, agendas, committee schedules, nominations files, subcommittee files, and, by far the largest in volume, bill files. Not all committee subseries utilized each of these categories and in some instances folders have ad hoc topical headings, such as "campground reservations" or "energy conservation hearings" and so on.
The bill files for each committee are generally in numerical order, except that sometimes several bills, either related in subject or with numbers that fall together in the sequence, may be contained in one folder. The committee bill files typically contain witness lists; statements and testimony of McClure, other members, and witnesses; printed copies of bills; recommendations of federal agencies; handwritten notes; newspaper clippings; tearsheets from the
McClure's records relating to the committees he served on in his first Congress, 1967-1968, are in the Annual Subject File, under "Associations & Committees" (Series 2.1).
Republican Policy Committee materials were filed in the Annual Subject File under "Political Affairs".
By the end of the 1970s, legislative assistants were increasingly keeping committee (and legislation) related materials in their own files; and the A & C congressional committee files for its last year, 1981-1982, are sparse. This merger of committee (and other legislation) related records into the legislative assistant's own papers coincided with a formal restructuring of legislative assistant assignments in February 1982 to parallel congressional committee and subcommittee responsibilities.
Correspondence relating to McClure's committee service after 1982 may be found under Series 4.9.
These files represent McClure's participation in the Congressional Intern Program, designed to provide young people "hands on" experience about Congress, the legislative process, and the political environment; the BYU intern program; the Sears Intern Program; the William Randolph Hearst Foundation - United States Senate Youth Program; the Washington Workshops; the Senate's Senior Citizen Internship Program; and other intern programs sponsored through various universities. The interns served both on McClure's office staff and on the staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. From 1967 through 1979, such records were filed under "Employment" in the Annual Subject File, but not until 1974 became a separate subseries as "Employment 1-1 Interns." Intern files were continuously maintained by McClure's personal secretary, in the early years; and later by Liz Ware (a former intern herself) in 1974; Nell Doane in 1979; Susan Tackish, 1985; and Office Manager Claire Cummings, c.a. 1987 to 1990.
There are folders for general information (Congressional Research Service orientation program for Interns, housing information, copies of manuals prepared by McClure's office, as well as the
There are also summary sheets of the applicants, in varying degrees of completion, with such information as applicant's name, school, major, parents, political affiliation, and evaluative comments; memos regarding intern responsibilities and/or procedures, or typed pages with intern instructions. One folder contains a copy of a paper an intern wrote as part of her internship. There are clippings or copies of newspaper articles about interns. There are also lists of McClure's interns.
These files were arranged by "accepted," "rejected," "too late," "out of state," etc., with folders for each applicant, alphabetical by last name and category (an arrangement first used in the Subject File in 1976). The applicant folders contain the application and sometimes resumes, transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc.
There are also copies of the intern form letters used in CMS.
The "Interns" file was an outgrowth of the "Employment" category specified in the
Beginning in 1981, the CMS Topic Index (Series 3.2), under "Employment: Interns" lists names of applicants and the numbers of the items with which their inquiries were answered. The CMS Daily Files (Series 3.1) contain letter work orders with lists of names and addresses of people who received each form letter.
The
While the Annual Subject File (Series 2) worked well enough for legislation in which McClure had only a peripheral concern, it immediately proved awkward for filing his own legislative materials, which remained current for the two-year duration of each Congress. Thus, the Subject File category Legislation 3-1 Member's Bills for 1968 includes both years of the 90th Congress; then, beginning with the 91st Congress, 1969-1970, Member's Bills were filed in a physically separate subseries. As the years passed, those categories which continued to be filed in the annual sequence of the Subject File (Legislation 1, 2, and 3) became increasingly dominated by whip notices and legislative notices, although for some years (1971, 1972, 1975), there are also folders of "Dear Colleague" letters. If McClure maintained a concern with another congressman's or senator's bill, it was more likely to be filed under the appropriate topical heading of the Subject File than under "Legislation."
The biennial "Legislation 3-1: Member's Bills" through 1981 consisted, for each congress, of preliminary materials followed by individual folders of McClure-sponsored or cosponsored measures filed numerically: first bills, then resolutions, concurrent resolutions, and joint resolutions. For the Senate period there are also folders of each McClure-sponsored amendment.
The preliminary folders typically contain correspondence, staff memoranda, newspaper clippings, drafts of bills, summaries of bills, handwritten notes, "Dear Colleague" letters, copies of witness testimony, agency reports, lists of bills, reports on the status of bills, and other records relating to legislation and proposed legislation authored by McClure and sometimes by others. For all but McClure's earliest congresses several types of documents serve as control records; these include chiefly the (1) Index to Bills, (2) Bill Digest, and (3)
(1) The Index to Bills, prepared by McClure's staff beginning in 1970 and continued through 1990, is little more than a typewritten list of bills and other measures giving dates of introduction, bill numbers, and titles, and sometimes the disposition for each item. There are interlineations and omissions.
(2) For the 92nd Congress, 1st session only, 1971, McClure's staff created a "Bill Digest" covering measures introduced January-May (thus covering only about half of the legislative measures sponsored or cosponsored by McClure in this Congress), containing a copy of each printed item, together with a brief typewritten summary, including "Reasons for Introducing" (varied from a short statement to an excerpt from a news release to a paragraph starting "McClure feels . . ."). The printed bills in the digest often included annotations, sometimes in McClure's handwriting, almost all of which are instructions to the typist filling out the digest forms.
(3) For each congress from 1973-1976 there was an untitled, computer-generated printout providing a "Detailed Status Profile" giving dates of all activity in regard to each of McClure's bills. In 1977-1978 this became a formal publication, prepared by the Senate Computer Center, with the title
The individual files for each bill or resolution typically include the printed item; correspondence with constituents, government officials, and other senators, with accompanying documents; memoranda from committee staff and personal staff; news releases by McClure and other members; statements of witnesses; affidavits; often typed sheets recording the status of the measure; and other records. Some of this material is annotated and there are many handwritten notes.
After the abandonment of the Subject File in 1981, much of the correspondence regarding legislation was scattered throughout the CMS Daily Files (Series 3.1), while the other working records formerly found in Member's Bills were often kept among the various legislative assistants' papers (Series 5.0). The Member's Bills series was thus in its last years much diminished: the preliminary folders for each Congress consisted only of copies of
Occasionally legislative assistants in the course of their work would borrow folders from Legislation 3-1 Member's Bills and, instead of returning them, make them part of their own working papers (see Series 5), filing therein handwritten notes, copies of received or sent memoranda regarding the issue, copies of transcripts, newspaper clippings, and original letters lifted from the Association and Committee files. In some instances the Members Bills files were virtually cleaned out in this fashion, leaving nothing but copies of the printed bills. Examples of this sort of migration of files have been noticed particularly in the papers of legislative assistants Tom Hill and Deborah Bogossian. In other cases, such as that of Peter Carlucci, legislative assistants' working files are found left in Legislation 3-1.
The
CMS (Series 3.0) designated a document type "Invitations," with the following six topics: "Out of State," "Idaho," "Meetings hosted by McClure," "Meetings for others," "Office appointments," "Washington." The CMS Topic Indexes thus provide, although under six separate headings, lists of invitations, both accepted and declined. But unless a written response was made by McClure the transaction may not be represented in the CMS Daily Files. The CMS indexes under "Meetings for others" provide the only documentation after 1981 for the sort of requests formerly filed under "general" and "visitors." The CMS Daily Files contain chiefly "data carbons," often with brief notations, such as "Accepted by telephone." If correspondence with the author of the invitation was handled through the Boise Office, the documents will be filed in the Boise Office records (Series 7.1).
Closely related to invitations are the following incomplete runs of records:
In the Boise Office files (Series 7.1.1) are final schedules for McClure's activities in Idaho (1986-1990).
Administration (Series 2.5.1) includes a Planning Calendar for 1975.
Appointment Books (Series 4.7), or "Day-at-a-glance" calendars (1983-1984, 1986-1989), while revealing many of the invitations McClure accepted, lack the evidence on the decision making process provided by staff recommendations and sometimes simply refer to itineraries which were not found with the collection.
Telephone Logs (March 1978-December 1988) only seldom list invitations/appointments even though most acceptances and regrets were conveyed by phone. Apparently the invitation/appointment forms, incoming letters, or blue sheets were sufficient record of the phone calls (Series 2.5.4).
Guest Books (1970-1990) were rarely signed by visitors to the office who had appointments with McClure. Their major purpose seems to have been the generation of a list of Idaho visitors (Series 2.5.4).
McClure's office devoted considerable effort to recording the positions taken and the reasons therefore on the legislation on the floor of Congress. The carrying out of this task produced or accumulated the eight general types of records identified below, most of which, unfortunately, cover only a limited number of years. Much of the formal record of votes might be thought redundant since the record of floor debate is published (not always verbatim) in the
Several of the subseries herein are referred to as "voting record" in their titles, but they vary considerably in format and function, though all concern McClure's votes on measures before Congress.
McClure's
(1) National Republican Congressional Committee "Voting Record" comprises forms furnished by the National Republican Congressional Committee covering January 1967-October 1968. The forms state the topic of each vote, synopsis, and results broken down by party and yea or nay, and provide a place for the member's staff to write in the member's vote.
(2) "Voting Record" (typescript and scrapbook), contains typescript and pasted-in clippings from
(3) "Member's Individual Voting Record," 1967-1972, containing (a) "Members Individual Voting Record," forms listing in roll call number order all votes with the "member's response" and total votes; (b) "Roll Call Subject Guide," a GPO print giving somewhat more detail, and (c) "Index to Voting Record – Subject." The format changes over the years, but each provides essentially similar information.
(4) "Floor File" consists of printed bills and reports, very frequently with McClure's typed or handwritten memos, either jotted on the backs or on separate small notesheets, explaining the purpose of the proposed legislation or McClure's reasons for his vote. For the House period, this file exists only for 1970; for the Senate period, only for 1973. For the Senate period, the memoranda are recommendations and background reports from staff to McClure, less often McClure's thoughts than in the House floor file; sometimes there are copies of telephone messages from constituents (blue sheets). As sometimes there are Subject File codes marked on items, it may be that this material had been intended for deposit in the Subject File, but was never filed. The designation "Floor File" appears several times jotted on the top of items. The floor file was used in the compilation of the "Voting Record" (card file), which was apparently regarded as "official." (See the description quoted from the
(5) "Voting Record" (card file) consists of 5x7-inch cards with typed text listing votes in chronological order, originally kept in ring binders. Each card records one bill and its amendments up for vote that day. McClure's vote is handwritten in the margin. There are cards covering May-August 1968 (pasted to backs of cards are typed or handwritten comments by McClure, explaining his vote), Sept-Oct. 1968 (occasional notes by McClure), 1970 (arranged alphabetically instead of chronologically, with many McClure notes), May-July 1971 (no McClure notes, but there are cards prepared by "Mrs. Cummings" with rankings of McClure, Frank Church, and other senators by ACA, ADA, etc., and inserted lists of McClure's schedule, apparently recording where he was when quorums were called and votes taken, from March through Dec. 1971), and January-July 1972. There are occasional cards with clues to recordkeeping practice, such as a note (Dec. 2, 1971) describing errors in recorded votes and another January 19, 1972, listing the sources from which these cards were compiled and explaining why the cards' voting statistics often differed from those provided by the
McClure's
(6)
(7) "Voting Ratings", is an annual compilation of printed pamphlets, clippings, and letters from various rating organizations representing political points of view. Though coded as if part of the Annual Subject File, these records were clearly always maintained in an independent sequence. Each folder is similar in content, except the folder for 1973 is slim, relates mostly to "Big Spender Roll Call Analysis."
Also included were occasional letters from constituents commenting on rating scores, correspondence with rating services, reports (in form of a letter) giving ratings by Republican Conference, McClure staff memos discussing votes and ratings, including groups of constituent letters answered by ROBOS, and memos on votes missed. Among the rating organizations included are the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, American Conservative Union, Conservative Index, Americans for Constitutional Action, Republican Conference, Idaho Poll, Ralph Nader Congress Project, and ZPG, among others. One memo in these files notes: "at least 61 organizations rate congressmen on their votes on issues."
The 1982 folder contains a inch thick spiral bound "1981 Voting Record Analysis, The National Republican Senatorial Committee". This is not the same as the
"Voting Records" was not an original category in the Subject File, but was created by McClure's staff as "Political Affairs 9-2-1 Voting Records House & Senate" about 1971, when there is a single folder containing materials apparently prepared to document certain votes missed by McClure. In 1974 there is a folder marked "Political Affairs 8-3-1 Voting Records," with materials similar to those found for that and other years under "Voting Ratings," in the present series.
Carbon copies of outgoing letters, filed alphabetically by name of the correspondent, and coded to the Subject File classification. Most of the correspondents represented are obscure, but many are prominent, and some are national leaders.
The senatewide Correspondence Management System (CMS) was installed on a central main frame computer as an eleven-office pilot project in the mid-1970s and made fully operational in 1980. McClure's office began using CMS on March 31, 1981. McClure continued to use CMS until he retired at the end of 1990.
Correspondents represented in the CMS Daily Files include constituents, members of Congress and other VIPs, the President of the United States, agencies of the United States government, and local and state officials, as well as others, both prominent and obscure.
The Daily Files consist of folders of incoming letters attached to "Letter Work Orders," which designate the previously prepared Library Paragraphs used in reply, together with any "ad hoc language" required for particular letters. CMS documents are filed in the order in which the incoming letter was answered, i.e., in sequence by a ten-digit computer-assigned document control number. This provides, in effect, the equivalent of a chronological arrangement, scattering papers that have an authorial or subject relationship. Not all the relevant correspondence will be found in the Daily Files, or even in this collection of McClure's papers: McClure often had replies prepared by committee staff, even when there no apparent relationship between the inquiry and the work of the committee. Such an outgoing letter will usually not be represented here, even though the incoming inquiry is.
Because the Daily Files are chronological, there is no way to bring together material relevant to a person or subject without consulting the indices. For McClure's text used in responses, in most cases it is necessary to consult the Master Libraries (Series 3.2).
The CMS control records consist of four principal parts, originally kept in a sequence of ring binders:
(1) "Master Library," for each Congress a thousand or more numbered texts of letters and phrases, arranged in numerical order (that is, in the chronological order in which the earliest draft of each item was written). Superseded and deleted items, marked as such, are included, so the Master Library should provide a complete record of the views McClure expressed in correspondence with the public, except when unique wording was required by the nature of the query or, sometimes, the importance of the correspondent.
(2) "Topic Library," the same items arranged for each Congress in alphabetical order by general topics and subtopics, such as "social security/general" and "banking/savings & loan." Many of the categories in CMS resemble the headings formerly used in the Subject File, although they are not always equivalent.
(3) "Topic Index," for each annual session, comprises a list of all McClure's CMS documents in alphabetical order by topic and subtopic (usually from "academies/apply out of state" through "wildlife/hunting"). Information included is correspondent name, address, document type, topic, subtopic, date of reply or other disposition, document number, and numbers of library items (if any) used in reply. Sometimes there is a note on a separate line in addition to or instead of an item number. In-person visits or telephone inquiries, even inconsequential ones, were also usually, but not invariably, recorded in CMS.
(4) "Name Index" contains identical information to Topic index but entries are sorted in alphabetical order by name of correspondent, visitor, or other inquirer. "Topic Indexes" and the "Name Indexes" are indexes to the CMS Daily Files, not to the "Libraries." They lead directly to the document numbers for each exchange of communications with a person or on a particular topic/subtopic during a given year.
The CMS topic/subtopic list has fairly broad categories and seems to be useful in a subject search only by guessing at the most plausible topics/subtopics and browsing in the Topic Library and in the Topic Index under those headings. This means understanding beforehand how McClure's staff may have viewed an issue. Wilderness debates, for example, were generally subsumed within the topic/subtopic "economics/general" and not the equally plausible topic "recreation," which covers such subtopics related to wilderness as "camp grounds," "national recreation areas," "outfitters and guides," "trails," and "wild and scenic rivers". It may be necessary to go back and forth between topic and name indexes and topic and master libraries several times before all the communications relevant to a particular inquiry are found, and there does not seem to be any sure way of knowing when the trail of evidence has been exhausted.
These records are generally not "personal" in the usual sense of the word, but consist of items brought to the senator's personal attention. This series seems to have been maintained by the Office Manager, Claire Cummings, and by McClure's personal secretaries, Jane Roth and Shellie Holloway; as far as this series is concerned, there seems to be no clear distinction between their responsibilities over any period of time.
The several distinct subseries may have little in common; in part, identification was influenced by the labeling on the shipping containers by McClure's staff when the records were transferred to the repository.
Much similar material prior to 1981 may be found in the Annual Subject File (Series 2.0) under the heading, "Admin 2-1 Personal." There is no obvious distinction between "personal" materials filed in the Annual Subject File and some of those filed here. There is also similar material in the Subject File under "Political Affairs" and "Public Relations."
This material appears never to have been well arranged while in McClure's office. Material in folders with subject labels, or otherwise with clear identification of subject pertinence, has been kept in this subseries as "Issues." Items with no perceptible order -- often letters that McClure's staff had left heaped in boxes in their original envelopes -- were simply arranged chronologically in the following subseries (4.2), "Miscellaneous."
Chiefly letters and other documents never filed or foldered in McClure's office. Included are letters congratulating McClure for his electoral victories in 1966 and 1972 and inviting his support for various programs, position statements by various interest groups and other members of Congress, a few letters from job seekers, several congratulatory and thank-you letters from other politicians, including President Richard M. Nixon, memoranda to McClure from his staff, schedules, newspaper clippings, analyses of legislative measures, and many unidentified notes. There is no subject focus to this series, but the individual items relate to questions of employment, wilderness, the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, timber policy and mining, the legislature of Idaho, local projects proposed for federal funding, energy policy, election campaigns and financing, the federal budget, Congressional office assignments, legislative procedures, Idaho politics, Idaho economic development, and other Idaho politicians, especially Frank Church. As the material was received in no order, it was arranged chronologically during processing.
In the post-CMS period, nine cubic feet comprised what McClure's staff called "VIP Letters" or "Dear Jims," mail received from other senators, congressmen, the White House, cabinet members, and other high officials, and rarely someone not in government. These letters relate to a wide variety of topics, such as politics, demonstrations of new technology, employment for former staffers, the progress of legislation, the administration of the Senate, oversight of the operations of government, thanks for political or personal favors, and birthday congratulations. There are often attached photocopies of
For all the priority they were accorded by McClure's Office Manual, the filing of VIP Letters was haphazard, as they were apparently stuffed by the office manager in very overfilled folders, either unlabeled or marked "Dear Jim Letters." The present series includes both the usually, but not always, ribbon copies initialed by McClure and his administrative assistant and the file photocopies kept by the office manager, weeded of photocopied duplicates.
Among the VIP letters are also "ENR" and "Int" Letters, chiefly photocopies of letters prepared for McClure's signature, but also a few incoming letters and other items, by the staffs of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, while McClure was ranking minority member or chair.
Specific instructions on the handling of letters from other senators and congressmen appeared in memos from the Office Manager from time to time (see especially Series 2.5.1, Administration, for 1984) and were codified in the Office Manual (1990).
"Dear Colleague" letters, the forerunner of "Dear Jims," are also found in the Subject File (Series 2.0) under "Legislation" for 1971, 1972, and 1975, usually with staff comment scrawled on the original letter and accompanied by drafts of bills, tearsheets, and statements. Letters from other members of Congress or other VIP's may also be found in "Administration," under the category "Personal" (Series 2.5.1), and in Administrative Assistant Tod Neuenschwander's papers under the topic "Rules Committee" (Series 5.11). If the original of a letter exists in any one of these places, there may be a photocopy elsewhere in the collection.
"Dear Jim" letters answered through CMS by McClure's office may be identified with document numbers penciled in, though these numbers have been observed to be inaccurate. The letters in the VIP files and the copies in the CMS Daily files (Series 3.1) may be accompanied by copies of the same or different enclosures. But most "Dear Jim" letters were not answered through CMS -- at least not by McClure's office staff, which suggests they may have been handled by committee staff.
Thus the CMS Name Index (Series 3.2) will not identify all the correspondence between McClure and colleagues. But then neither do the VIP Letters include all the VIP correspondence reflected in the CMS indexes. Much of the discrepancy can probably be accounted for by correspondence handled by committee staff, by responses made by telephone, not letter, and by communications, such as thank-yous or responses, which needed no reply.
The "Remarks" in McClure's personal papers consist of photocopies of
Despite the apparent similarity in series titles, "Remarks in the
This series continues the Subject File (Series 2) category "Speeches and Statements" as it existed before 1979. The same subcategories are used, arranged by year, so for each year there are separate folders for speeches, statements, testimony, and
"Speeches" usually contains texts (sometimes in large type for reading before an audience) of formal presentations, but there is really no consistent distinction as to what material belongs under each subcategory. This is especially true of the
The 1974
In McClure's Papers, speeches and related materials may be found in any of the following series, and elsewhere:
(1) The Annual Subject File (Series 2.0) category "Speeches" (after 1973 usually styled "Speeches & Statements"), was a category added by McClure's office. Prior to 1971 "Speeches 1" was used for correspondence regarding speeches, not for speech texts. After McClure's move to the Senate, the filing pattern for speech material in the Subject File remained generally constant, and the present series "Speeches and Statements" among the personal papers simply continues these headings.
(2) The
(3) The Annual Subject File(Series 2.0) may contain speeches under almost any topical heading. McClure seems regularly to have followed the practice recommended in the
(4) The Press series "Statements" (Series 6.3) contains sometimes similar materials but differs in its arrangement, which is alphabetical by ad hoc subjects.
The Personal Bill File originally consisted of eighteen ring binders and six paper-bound bills too large for binders. It includes printed copies of all McClure's sponsored and co-sponsored legislative measures, 1967 through 1990, arranged by Congress and ordered by bill or resolution number. Bills come first, followed by resolutions, joint resolutions, and concurrent resolutions. There are also amendments, but only for the period 1967-1976. (The majority of amendments were unprinted.) Sometimes attached to bills are printed or photo copies of the resulting Act. Other bills passed may have handwritten notations of the public law number. A few missing copies of bills between 1967-1972 are indicated by an inserted sheets of paper. It does not appear that there are any missing items other than amendments after 1973. For simply the text of legislative measures, this is a more complete set than "Legislation 3-1 Member's Bills" (Series 2.8), although it lacks the bulk of supporting material. There is evidence that this set was actually maintained in McClure's office for his own reference.
Entries in McClure's handwriting, listing persons and plans of meetings.
Since the
McClure's foreign travel records document his attendance at conferences (including interparliamentary groups) and participation in fact-finding missions. These files contain correspondence; briefing memoranda prepared by State or other departments of government, or by Senate staff; minutes and memoranda of meetings; itineraries for trips; agendas for meetings; notes taken by McClure; official thank-you letters from heads of delegations; invitations; business cards; draft and final typed delegation reports; final GPO printed reports of trips; and other records relating to travel, largely abroad, by Senator and Mrs. McClure. For many trips the bulk of the records originally were in the form of ring binders or folders, which constituted briefing books containing schedules, itineraries, and information on conference participants and the issues to be discussed.
Other places where travel records are found include the Subject File categories "Meetings 1: Accepted invitations," which contains itineraries for Idaho travel; "Foreign Relations 7," which occasionally contains travel files placed under the country visited; and "Administration," which has reports of expenditures.
From 1981 to 1990 CMS (Series 3.0) had three categories for travel: Admin/office management/staff travel, Issue/Congress/travel, and Admin/McClure Personal/General. However, only very rarely was CMS actually used for McClure's travel correspondence.
McClure's travel within Idaho is also documented by briefing books for Idaho trips, 1981-1990, in the Press files (Series 6.7) and by schedules in the Boise office administration files (Series 7.1.1).
Records of McClure's service on committees prior to 1982 are in the Subject File: Associations and Committees (Series 2.6) and under the same heading in the Annual Subject File (Series 2.0).
This series primarily consists of substantive correspondence relating to the leadership of the Republican Party in the Senate, specifically to McClure's reelection as chair of the Senate Republican Conference, committee assignments of senators, and campaign fund raising. There is also facilitative material and McClure letters to broadcasters relating to the "Republican message," specifically to "Tax Cut Day" celebration. There are "op-ed" columns written by Republican senators apparently distributed by the Conference. The larger part are letters supporting former conference employees, concerning assignment of senators to task forces, and inquiries to the Senate Ethics Committee regarding clarification of rules, and other routine matters relating to the work of the conference. There are a few newsletters.
The filing category "Republican Conference" in Administration records (Series 2.5.1) tends to contain materials concerning relations of the Conference and its staff with McClure's senatorial staff. While a minority of the present series also consists of such material, most of it concerns the activities and leadership of the Conference.
The Senate Republican Policy Committee was a subcommittee of the Republican Conference.
The Senate Republican Steering Committee was an ad hoc committee, not a committee of the Republican Conference. Like the Republican Conference files, the Steering Committee files contain a mixture of substantive and facilitative materials.
Included are correspondence, memoranda from ENR staff to McClure as chair, newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, and reports, principally dealing with questions affecting national energy supply and policy, especially the BPA and WPPSS, oil imports, the proposed Clinch River breeder reactor, nuclear waste disposal, the IEA, reorganization of the DOE, a proposed coal slurry pipeline, the Savannah River reactor, natural gas decontrol, the Alaska pipeline, the Clean Air Act, and the safety of dams. McClure was chair of the ENR committee during the period represented by these records.
This material appeared to have simply been accumulated in McClure's office and never filed, although there was some indication of a uncompleted attempt to impose order retrospectively by classifying by subject or by name of staff member. The most practical arrangement at the repository seemed to be a single chronological sequence.
Prior to 1982 records of McClure's service on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee were filed in the Subject File: Associations & Committees (Series 2.6).
The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe Final Act, signed by leaders of East and West European nations, Canada, and the United States on August 1, 1975, contained a broad range of political, military, and humanitarian commitments, with provision for periodic meetings to review implementation. To monitor compliance with or violations of the Final Act, with particular regard to provisions relating to cooperation in humanitarian fields, Congress created the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also know as the Helsinki Commission) as an independent advisory agency. The Commission was composed of six members each from the Senate and the House (later nine each), and one each from the departments of state, defense, and commerce, and included a permanent staff. McClure served on the Commission from 1985 through 1990. These files seem to have been maintained by Dave Sullivan, McClure's legislative assistant responsible for defense issues. They were neatly labeled and in unusually good order for McClure's personal files. They consist of agenda, itineraries, formal memoranda, and briefing materials relating to meetings of the commission and of human rights experts, and to hearings before Congress. There are occasional handwritten notes by McClure.
CMS (Series 3.0) from 1985-1990 designated a topic/subtopic "Foreign Relations/Helsinki," but only three letters exist using this heading, all in the years 1988 and 1990.
There is material on the Canada -- Human Rights Experts Meeting, May 10-11, 1985, in McClure's Personal Travel records (Series 4.8).
A small amount of material resulting from McClure's service on the Boards of Visitors for the U.S. Military Academy, 1982-1984; the U.S. Naval Academy, 1982-1983; and the Duke University School of Forestry, 1981-1983.
The Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, of which McClure was a member, was created in January 1987 and held joint hearings with the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran between May and August of that year. McClure's records resulting from his membership consisted of a typescript control record or "chronology"; typed transcripts of daily testimony; and working papers of McClure and his assistant, Jack Gerard. Originally in two ring binders, the "Chronology of the Joint Hearings on the Iran-Contra Investigation (JHICI)," lists, after each date, events of a general character, events relating to the Contras, and events relating to Iran, providing a synopsis of evidence or testimony, with names of witnesses, dates, citations to laws and bills, and to charts apparently presented in the hearings, or a CRS number. The typed transcriptions of each day's testimony, were prepared for distribution to committee members before the next hearing. Apart from a few punctuation and grammatical corrections, the text of these typescripts differs from the published testimony (GPO, 1988) primarily in lacking the Exhibit numbers in the text (which refer to the printed appendix) and in providing Jack Gerard's marks for McClure's attention, such as flags for the points in the testimony where McClure began questioning, underlined passages, and labels for certain testimony. The "working papers" include memoranda by Jack Gerard, who served as McClure's "designee" or chief assistant for the Iran-Contra committee, Gerard's handwritten notes of questions for witnesses, copies of interviews conducted by committee staff, testimonies, short biographies of various people, committee memoranda, minority report committee drafts, newspaper clippings, and other records. There are numerous letters commenting on McClure's participation in the committee's work, from people from all over the United States.
There are other Iran-Contra files in Jack Gerard's papers (Series 5.5) and there are also Iran-Contra-related video tapes (see Series 6.9.2).
The McClure Papers included discrete groups of material identified with seventeen Washington, D.C., staff members, among them McClure's last administrative assistant, Tod Neuenschwander, and his legislative director, Jack Gerard, The remainder were legislative assistants and legislative correspondents, whose materials were primarily reference files concerning issues of importance to their work. The papers include correspondence, memos and reports from staff to McClure (some annotated by the Senator), and a variety of reports, newspaper clippings (or photocopies of clippings), other printed items, handwritten notes on meetings and briefings attended by the staff member, newsletters, copies of bills, Congressional Record excerpts, maps, and other items of interest. There are indications that some legislative assistants pulled letters and even entire folders from the Subject Files (Series 2.0) and used them as their own files, adding additional working papers.
Most legislative assistants' papers included "Memos to JAM," written by the legislative assistant, sometimes segregated in separate folders, sometimes interfiled according to subject. These memos appear to be the originals, returned to the author with penned or pencilled notations indicating approval by the administrative assistant or, in later years, the legislative director. The memos sometimes include written annotations by McClure, the administrative assistant or the legislative assistant. Sometimes there are original letters from constituents (or others) to McClure in the legislative assistant files, sometimes there are only photocopies. There are also carbons or copies of CMS letter work orders presumably pulled for reference or to check for previous correspondence with an Idaho correspondent and never properly refiled. The legislative assistants' and correspondents' papers are arranged most often as subject reference files related to the particular issues assigned. In some cases, they left their papers in a nearly formless condition; other legislative assistants created their own filing codes similar to those used in the Subject File.
The responsibilities of each legislative assistant were usually broken down by subject matter and congressional committee. Some of the responsibilities included: prepare answers to mail; prepare Senator's statements; if assigned a committee, prepare briefing statements, keep track of hearings and legislative measures, recommend the position the Senator should take, recommend legislative tactics or amendments, draft bills and statements; and make recommendations on incoming "dear colleague" letters
Deborah L. Bogossian joined the staff in 1980, replacing Doug Smith, whose files she incorporated into her own. She was responsible for such issues and/or committees/subcommittees as Forestry, Interior, Public Lands and Mineral Resources. She left the staff in early 1982 to become a member of the staff of the Minerals Management Service in the Department of Interior. Her papers include information on RARE II, Alaska lands, and wilderness areas.
Frank M. Cushing was legislative assistant for agricultural affairs beginning in 1977. His area of responsibility also encompassed energy, including alcohol fuel research; natural resources; and Department of the Interior appropriations. He left McClure's office staff in 1984 to work for McClure on the staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, later becoming staff director for the committee. The papers in this series reflect Cushing's work as legislative assistant, not as committee staff. The agriculture folders follow the Subject File headings; the remaining folders are in alphabetical order, usine a topic assigned by the processor since many of Cushing's original folders had no headings.
James R. Fields was appointed by McClure as a consultant to the Veterans Affairs Committee late in 1973 and continued to be listed as a minority staff member of that committee until 1975, but he apparently combined this position with one as legislative counsel on McClure's personal staff, where he served from 1973 until late 1976, when he left to become general counsel for the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry. In a 1975 memo his duties were listed as "Special counsel -- taxes, veterans, health, education, welfare, labor, small business, post office, retirement/Social Security, voting records, drafting legislation, housing." His papers consist of outgoing letters arranged by subject (agriculture, health & welfare, institutions, labor), which were either over the signature of McClure or of Fields, who signed as "Legislative Assistant." There are also subject analyses prepared by Fields of incoming correspondence, carbons of outgoing letters concerning veterans affairs, and material on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, S.1938 (1974). Most of this material consists of carbon copies of letters to constituents in Idaho.
Peter Flory was legislative assistant with responsibility for defense, foreign affairs, public works, and environment from 1987 to 1989. The single folder contains his memoranda to McClure on these subjects.
Jack Noel Gerard applied in 1981 for a summer internship in McClure's office, but was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, he joined the staff in January 1985 as a legislative assistant and was promoted to legislative director the following year, a position he held through 1990. His files, left in subject folders but lacking discernable order overall, were organized during processing in three broad categories: Office/Administrative Records, Idaho Matters, and General Matters. Within each group, files are arranged alphabetically. Included are bills, committee reports, correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed and near print materials, reports, staff employment evaluations, McClure campaign organization minutes, and other material. Gerard's files are largely reference materials on such issues of concern to McClure as banking, budget, commerce, taxes, economic development grants, or economic issues within industries such as timber. Some of the material dating back to 1979 was most likely inherited from his predecessor. Other materials seem to have been referred by the administrative assistant, and some seem to be materials of Jeff Cilek, who may have been Gerard's assistant.
Kendall L. Gleason was legislative assistant from 1983 to 1990 with responsibility for energy, taxation, and housing and urban development. Her papers include briefing papers, correspondence, manuals, and reports. All are in a single alphabetical sequence.
Hollis L. (Broadfoot) Hathaway was legislative correspondent from 1983 to 1989 when she was promoted to legislative assistant. Her responsibilities included agriculture and natural resources. She appears to have worked closely with Jane Wittmeyer as many of the letters in her file are addressed to Wittmeyer. Among Hathaway's papers are handwritten notes from staff briefings. The papers are in a single alphabetical sequence.
Carl Haywood, legislative assistant most responsible for Interior affairs, neatly arranged and labeled the majority of his files. Other files, less fastidiously arranged, were apparently inherited by Haywood from his predecessor as natural resources legislative assistant, Barbara Wise, who joined the McClure staff in July 1982 and resigned around early April 1985. Haywood was the legislative assistant most responsible for the Department of the Interior and related issues, and remained on the staff until 1990. The files are divided into several sub-series, i.e., General, Endangered Species, Natural Resources, and Wilderness.
Thomas M. Hill was legislative assistant with responsibility for natural resources, public lands, energy, and foreign relations and judiciary issues from 1976 to 1983. He was also the staff legal counsel and his papers include sub-series for legal and general material in addition to the subject areas. The legislative staff reorganization in 1982, intended to make the legislative assistants' responsibilities correspond more closely to the Senate committee organization, is also reflected in these files. There are materials included which relate to other personnel, perhaps inherited from other legislative assistants, as well as material which Hill obviously borrowed from elsewhere, such as from the Legislation 3-1, Member's Bills (Series 2.8), and incorporated into his own files.
Ben Lesser served in 1990 as Senator McClures Legislative Assistant for environment and public works. His papers include memos of other legislative assistants with similar areas of responsibility
Tod O. Neuenschwander became McClure's press secretary late in 1975 after serving as news director for Pacific Northwest radio stations and two Idaho television stations. By 1981 Neuenschwander also oversaw "press activities of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee and consult[ed] on communication programs for the Senate Republican Conference." In late 1982 he was McClure's administrative assistant, a position he held (with title change to chief of staff in 1990) until the senator left office. For a few months, until March 1983, Neuenschwander was McClure's acting press secretary as well as administrative assistant. The administrative assistant was the principal figure on the Senator's staff. According to the 1989
Neuenschwander's administrative position is reflected in other records throughout the collection. His memoranda and instructions (and self stick notes) to the staff are found in many files, especially including those of the legislative assistants. In the mid-1980s Neuenschwander began initialing just about every piece of paper that came in or went out from the office. Most of the material that went to McClure passed through his administrative assistant's hands first. Possibly some papers of McClure's Press Office (Series 6.0) relate to Neuenschwander as press secretary.
This series chiefly relates to those Presidential appointments to federal office which required confirmation by the Senate, such as cabinet and sub-cabinet officers, the heads of independent agencies, the members of regulatory commissions, the directors of government corporations, ambassadors, and federal judges. Coordination of McClure's recommendations for such appointments was the responsibility of the administrative assistant, and these files were maintained by Neuenschwander and the special assistant to the administrative assistant, Susan Tackish. However, some of the files relate to appointments to lower levels of the bureaucracy, chiefly federal jobs within Idaho, or the Northwest region; simple recommendations or letters of endorsement, which may or may not carry any political implication; applications for employment with McClure's office; and materials not concerning employment at all, such as nominations for the Medal of Freedom. One folder is for the job of McClure's Idaho state director (1989).
Arrangement is roughly alphabetically by department and agency, or under such headings as "Judges," "Nominations," "Non-federal positions," "Recommendations for Private Industry," and "White House positions requested". A few folders are by name of applicant, usually in cases where multiple positions were applied for.
These files contain letters of inquiry, applications, resumes, letters of support, recommendations, etc. Sometimes the original CMS packet (which should have been returned to the Daily Files [Series 3.1]) is found here, and at other times there are photocopies of CMS data carbons. In addition to McClure's recommendations, there are requests from agency heads for recommendations on Idaho applicants. There are frequently staff memoranda discussing the merits of a candidate or the proper strength of a recommendation; sometimes these are on self stick notes or in the margins of documents.
Files for the period 1988-1990 generally relate to the "Bush Transition," wherein most political appointees were replaced or required to reapply for their jobs. The files of incumbents seeking to keep their jobs offer evidence on how well McClure's staff worked with various officials.
Neuenschwander's Nominations file was in general a continuation of the Subject File category "Nominations", although some of the material placed therein was more similar to that found in the category "Employment" (that is, not concerned with Presidential appointments). After McClure went to the Senate and became involved in the confirmation of Presidential appointments, his staff started a "nominations" file about 1975 as part of the Associations & Committees series (Series 2.3), for each committee that held confirmation hearings, such as Interior & Insular Affairs and Public Works. While there are not very many files here, they are heavy on certain candidates of concern to McClure, such as Cecil Andrus as secretary of the interior.
Nomination records of the "Reagan Transition," 1981, are in the Annual Subject File (Series 2.3) under both the headings "Nominations" and "Employment."
CMS Daily files (Series 3.1) contain duplicates of many of the items in Neuenschwander's nominations file, as well as almost all of the letters from members of the public favoring or opposing particular candidates. From 1981 to 1985 CMS treated "nominations" as a subtopic of "employment," including both Presidential appointments and non-federal, among them Idaho state, positions. After 1985, "nominations" became its own topic in CMS, with subtopics for "boards & commissions," "energy," "independent agencies," "interior," "judgeships" (after 1988), "other departments," "Republican organizations," and "general" (after 1988).
Chiefly correspondence and memoranda relating to the work of the committee, of which McClure was a member. There are occasional memoranda by members of McClure's staff.
The subseries "Office Automation" within administrative records (Series 2.5.1), maintained by the assistant to the administrative assistant, concerns a 1986 Rules Committee investigation of the Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Computer Center.
Neuenschwander's "issue files" reflect most aspects of McClure's operations and policy under ad-hoc subject headings, although most of the 1990 material arrived at the repository loose in boxes, apparently having never been filed. Much of this subseries consists of items passed to the administrative assistant as "information copies," so there are often duplicates elsewhere in the collection.
These files concern politics, natural resource issues, and miscellaneous issues. They relate to legislation, politics (particularly to Larry Craig, Richard Stallings, and national politics), mine cleanups, legislative scheduling, national resource policies, the environment, INEL, and drug abuse. There is some administrative material, including correspondence, memos, photocopies of clippings, self stick notes, copies of printed bills, FAX cover sheets, press releases, court documents, newsletters, notes, and resumes of job seekers. Included also is McClure's 1989 financial disclosure statement and a very few items relating to office facilities.
Nancy B. Norell began as a clerk in McClure's office in 1975 and was promoted to legislative assistant in 1981, a position she held until 1990. Her main responsibilities were gun control and national defense issues. Some of the defense papers appear to be from her predecessor, Jim Streeter. There is also material on human rights monitoring in Eastern Europe, photocopies of letters from McClure to the President and other VIPs about semiclandestine operations in Central America, and "Out Box," or material McClure had seen, but which was never properly filed.
Max Rogers joined McClure's staff in 1981 and apparently worked with Frank Cushing on agricultural and natural resource projects. He resigned in late 1983 or early 1984. His papers are in one alphabetical sequence.
Rita Scott was employed as legislative assistant with responsibility for nuclear energy from mid 1984 to mid 1989. Papers of her predecessor, Marilyn Meigs, are interfiled. Scott also worked as nuclear energy legislative assistant for Idaho Senator Steve Symms, and some of the letters in her files are addressed to Symms.
Martha Solodky began as a receptionist in McClure's office in 1977 and was promoted to legislative assistant in 1979. She was responsible for social service issues, including education and Indian affairs.
Alan R. Timothy joined McClure's staff in 1971. In 1975 he was assistant to Administrative Assistant Richard Thompson, then in late 1977 he became briefly executive assistant, or chief legislative assistant. His primary concern was Indian Affairs. Almost all of his collection deals with either Indian education and health or with a Navaho-Hopi land dispute. The folder labeled "Engagements" contains 3x5 cards with McClure's daily engagements for 1975-1976. Two spiral bound stenographer notebooks appear to be lists of letters written, and one contains what seems to be a tally of letters by individual staff members each day. The remaining four notebooks appear to be notes on constituent cases Timothy worked on.
Jane Wittmeyer joined the staff in February 1988. Her legislative assistant duties involved agriculture, natural resources, and parks and forests. She left McClure's office in mid 1990. Part of Wittmeyer's papers follow a modified Subject File filing system. She also provided an index to her system (date unknown) which has handwritten revisions. The remainder of Wittmeyer's files comprise an alphabetical sequence of ad-hoc subjects. Her files designated "Immigration" concern the plight of immigrant agricultural workers.
In addition to the statewide office in Boise, McClure maintained district offices in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Falls, Lewiston, Twin Falls, and Pocatello. Except for Pocatello, the records produced by each district office were similar, largely consisting of case files, requests, issues, or project files. District offices sometimes separated, sometimes interfiled, all these kinds of material. Typically, problems starting in a private way as cases could grow into important civic issues, and often reveal the behavior of McClure's staff in an advocacy role. For example, an objection raised in Troy, Idaho, against the sale of a city park for use as a post office construction site eventually grew into a citywide protest movement. Sometimes, however, hot local issues never appeared in district offices records at all, because they were never treated as cases. In the Coeur d'Alene records, for instance, there were no references at all to the Kellogg Gondola, a project which is heavily documented elsewhere in the collection (among other places, in legislative director Jack Gerard's files [5.5]) as of great interest to McClure.
This series relates to the operations of the Boise and district offices and to McClure's activities within Idaho. "Personnel" files record the actions of McClure's Idaho staff, especially of James Goller, his state director, but also of the assistants in charge of each district, and others. For district assistants and field representatives, the calendars, sometimes filed as "Vacation/Sick Leave," provide a monthly record of all activities outside the office, such as representation of McClure at meetings on economic projects. They also record conference calls and names of other participants. There are also "employee data sheets" and other forms giving personal information and the employment history on McClure's staff of most individuals; memoranda by and newspaper clippings relating to individual staff members; data for employee evaluations; commendations; reports of meetings and conferences attended; memoranda and newspaper clippings relating to district issues; staff travel schedules; and records of the staff's physical work environment, such as floor plans and space leases. There are also schedules relating to McClure's travels within the state.
"Schedules" of the work activities and travel of Idaho staff members, 1987-1989, are also filed in the Issue Files of Michael Ace Fields, McClure's state director (Series 7.1.8).
These materials resemble those in the Washington office CMS Daily Files (Series 3.1), but the individual items do not appear to be replicated there. Boise CMS files include all such material from Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston.
Casework consists, in the words of McClure's
Each district assistant handled local cases (see Series 7.2 through 7.5). Twin Falls casework was briefly recorded in a log in Series 7.2.3.
Clippings and photocopies of newspaper articles relating to McClure cut from Idaho papers and kept for reference by the Boise office. Through 1982 the Boise Office clippings were filed under a simplified version of the Subject File classification scheme, with generally for each year an alphabetically sequence from "Academies" through "Veterans," with other folders for political figures of Idaho interest and a very few additional topics. After the Subject File was superseded by CMS, this alphabetical arrangement was abandoned in favor of monthly folders without topical headings. For each heading, 1977 through 1990, two folders were prepared, one labeled "Misc.", the other "McClure Clips." Only the latter were retained.
Because the unfiled clippings received in McClure's Washington, D.C., office were discarded during archival processing of the collection, none of the Boise clippings can be assumed to be duplicated in D.C. records.
The "Highlights" consisted of brief, one sentence or paragraph, typewritten summaries of news articles from local papers. McClure's
The existing files of Highlights are not duplicated between Washington and Boise offices. Those in the Washington office records (Series 6.6) include only 1973-1974 and 1977.
Apparently a fragment of a Subject File, from "Public Relations" through "Transportation," in one alphabetical sequence rather than by annual session of Congress like the Washington office Subject Files (Series 2.1). Included are photographs, memoranda, clippings, newsletters, some correspondence, statements, and other records similar to those in the Subject File in the Washington office records.
Included are clippings from newspapers and magazines; a few carbons of letters by McClure, chiefly of a public relations nature; a few copies of McClure speeches; a few photographs of McClure and others; biographical information on Senator and Mrs. McClure; and occasionally other items.
These issue files include background and operational files on Idaho public matters of concern or potential concern to the McClure staff. There is evidence of letters signed by McClure but drafted by the state staff. There are notes kept by staff attending hearings, meetings, and agency tours. Most of these files can be identified with four specific staff members in the Boise office: Mike Ace Field, field representative out of the Pocatello office, 1977-1986, and state director, 1987-1988; James A. Goller, principal executive officer in Boise under a succession of titles, 1968 until 1987; Lee Jacobson, chief caseworker; and Natalie Olsen, caseworker handling Defense Department issues and cases at military bases in southwestern Idaho, 1986-1990. Field, Jacobson, and Olsen handled casework at various times; however, in contrast to the records resulting from their casework (see Series 7.1.3), these "Issue" files concern chiefly public matters and are arranged by topic or subject of issue, and only rarely concern problems of, or are filed by names of, individuals.
Among these records, which chiefly concern McClure's campaigns for United States Senator from Idaho in the elections of 1972, 1978, and 1984, are campaign manuals and training manuals, financial accounts, travel schedules, photographs, newspaper clippings, speeches, correspondence, guest lists, statistical data, opinion surveys, video tapes, and other materials.
Many more records concerning election campaigns are in the Washington office records, McClure Personal, Issues (Series 4.1) on "Congressional Elections" (for 1966, 1968, and 1970) and "Senatorial Elections" (for 1972, 1978, and 1984). Most video tapes are in Washington Office, Press Office (Series 6.9).
Project files, 1981-1990, arranged alphabetically.
Issue files and administrative records.
A casework docket, 1982-1990, lists each case with brief note of topic or inquiry.
In addition to the usual work of a district office, Pocatello was responsible for logging-in for Idaho Falls and Twin Falls of all material for CMS, and preparing public relations letters for all district offices and special and multiple letters for Idaho Falls and Twin Falls.
Administrative records relating to general office operations, and photographs (chiefly of McClure on trips to southeastern Idaho), travel files with McClure's itineraries annotated by the district assistant, trip reports (for travel by McClure and by the district assistant), and related clippings and field notes.
Correspondence, memoranda, newspaper clippings, publications, notes, etc.; mostly concerning Idaho public issues.
A continuation of the records relating to nominations to the service academies formerly maintained by McClure's Washington, D.C., office (Series 2.4).
Most of this material relates to McClure's service as a trustee for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., and as a member of the board of directors of Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, in Vienna, Virginia. Both of these non-profit organizations were created by special acts of Congress, the Kennedy Center in 1971 and Wolf Trap in 1966. Topics discussed in the records cover management, appointments to office, financial planning, and proposed legislation. The records include materials prepared for distribution to board members, some correspondence, and a few notes by McClure. There is also a very small amount of material concerning McClure's interest in environmental laws after his retirement from the Senate.