1982 Campaign

Though Don J. Pease eschewed the administration of files, this collection is surprisingly strong in its coverage and in the depth in which issues are covered. The majority of the Pease papers consists of the Congressman’s Washington office files, covering virtually all aspects of his legislative, constituent service, and public relations activities. District office files are modestly represented. The collection is organized into eight major subgroups and forty-two record series. The subgroups highlight major functional areas or activities, with later accessions placed at the end: I. State House and Senate Records in Ohio; II. U.S. Congress Personal/Political Papers; III. Legislative Records (U.S. Congress); IV. Constituent Service Records (U.S. Congress); V. Press Relations/Media Activities Records (U.S. Congress); VI. Campaign Files; VII. J. William Goold Addition; and, VIII. Professional and Political Retirement Files.

Given Congressman Pease’s personal interests and the political character of his congressional district, the collection is particularly strong in the areas of environment, human rights, labor, social issues, tax reform, and trade. Several issues of local interest are highlighted in this collection as well, particularly files relating to Air Traffic Controllers. Many of those employed at the Federal Aviation Administration Control Center in Oberlin were fired during the Ronald Reagan administration. Key environmental topics include wetlands issues, the proposed toxic waste incinerator in Nova, the use of Plum Brook land in Sandusky, and the creation of Old Woman Creek Estuary near Huron, Ohio. Significant human rights issues center on Pease’s work to implement a trade ban with Uganda in protest of Idi Amin’s regime, as well as the Human Rights Resolution and multiple files on civil rights, busing, and racial and sexual equality. Labor and international trade issues are well documented in Pease’s efforts to pass legislation designed to aid individuals and businesses displaced by imports in a district struggling against major economic woes and the declining automobile and steel industry in the counties of NE Ohio.

The first subgroup primarily consists of correspondence received by Pease while representing Ashland, Erie, Lorain, Medina, and Richland Counties in the Ohio Senate (1964-66, 1974-76, 13th Senate District) and Ohio House of Representatives (1968-74, combined 27th-29th, 54th, and 75th House Districts). Because these files were not systematically deposited in the Archives, they represent the extant files from this period. Other General Assembly Records include fragmentary legislative background files, file copies of the weekly newspaper column “Columbus/Capitol Commentary,” and speech notes and outlines. In reality, these files offer only a modest view of Pease’s accomplishments as a member of the Ohio General Assembly and do not highlight key areas such as the broad legislative work he sponsored in public education.

Subgroups two through five cover Pease’s tenure as a U.S. Congressman. In the second subgroup, among the thirteen record series, files exist pertaining to activities and organizations in which Congressman Pease was personally involved, such as caucuses and committee seating. Additionally, these files shed light on the general operation of the Congressional office itself. Included among the latter are appointment books, guest registers, invitations, and telephone logs. Of particular interest to researchers are the two record series, Correspondence (“FYI/Personal”) and Dictation Files. Correspondence contained in these files includes letters from three different presidents (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush) and one future president (Bill Clinton) as well as Cabinet members and other Congressmen during these decades. Various national, state, and local dignitaries and political notables are also found in these files. The newspaper clippings file, speech files, and travel files are helpful in reconstructing Pease’s involvement outside of the halls of Congress. Travel files contain valuable information on several important Congressional missions (mostly 1980s) to study the effects of trade and imports abroad.

Of particular interest to students of government, the legislative files, located in subgroup three, offer rich documentation on the legislative process, tracing the evolution of bills and providing background information on much of the key legislation in which Pease was involved. A complete set of voting records gives a detailed accounting of the positions taken by Congressman Pease on various pieces of legislation. The voting records further complement the files of sponsored/cosponsored bills (files of sponsored/cosponsored bills and cosigned letters are present for the 95th, 96th, 99th, 100th, 101st, and 102nd Congresses), which contain legislation introduced or supported by Pease.

The fourth and largest subgroup, constituent services, consists of correspondence between Congressman Pease and his constituents. In Ohio’s 13th Congressional District constituents wrote on a wide array of matters. They requested assistance with personal and business problems, expressed opinions on public issues or specific legislation, asked for Pease’s office to serve as a liaison with federal departments and bureaus, and requested many other services. The correspondence, which was significantly weeded, reveals the Congressman’s relations with his constituents and the impact of federal programs and legislation on local individuals and communities. Given the massive volume of the collection, an effort was made to streamline the correspondence to the extent possible. Routine correspondence, such as requests for flags or tours, was routinely discarded. In situations where mass mailings were responded to with the same standard reply, only a sample of the incoming mail was retained. The casework files and casework correspondence were sampled, and often only letters from residents of Lorain, Oberlin, and Wellington were preserved. This sampling represents a wide variety of constituent requests and provides the perspective of an urban area, a college community, and a rural community.

Media interaction and press relations are well chronicled in the files maintained by Pease’s Press Secretary. Records in this subgroup include administrative files kept by the Press Secretary, background files on significant legislation, constituent mailings (various newsletters), editorial/opinion pieces, news releases, opinion polls, and town meeting files. Taken as a whole these files offer a rich illustration of the methods used by a former journalist turned Congressman to disseminate information. The editorial/opinion pieces authored by Pease and his staff, as well as the constituent mailings, provide relevant background on key issues and Pease’s views on these particular issues. The opinion polls and town meeting files give access to the views held by constituents in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District. Used in conjunction with the legislative files found in subgroups three and seven, the Press Secretary’s background files and news releases aid in tracking policy development on national, state, and local levels.

Campaign files document in detail Pease’s efforts to seek and retain public office. Researchers interested in the general operation of a political campaign will be pleased with the material which includes files on campaign strategy, fund raising, voter registration, media contacts, and election issues. Files for the Ohio General Assembly are intermingled, thus researchers will find material on campaigns for State House and State Senate filed together. Conversely, campaigns for U.S. Congress are separately arranged by campaign—1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990. (There are some files for early 1992.) The quality of the records generally corresponds to the difficulty of the campaign (i.e., the 1986 campaign against William D. Nielson, Jr., is well documented, suggestive of greater planning). The presence of campaign files for Ohio state government and U.S. Congress provides a basis of comparison between the respective campaigns. Political campaigns for U.S. Congress frequently involved the use of consultants and national polling firms to help plan strategy, while State level campaigns were measurably less structured.

The sixth subgroup contains audio-visual records including videotapes (U-matic, Beta, VHS), reel-to-reel recordings, cassette tapes, photographs, and negatives. These files were created for campaign purposes and general publicity. Included among the audio material is a sampling of Congressman Pease’s radio program “The Pease Report.” Visual materials include several videotaped appearances on national and local news as well as photographs of visiting dignitaries and constituents (individuals and groups). Audio and video material may be screened in the audio-visual department of the College Library with appropriate permission.

The J. William Goold Addition, subgroup seven, contains files acquired by the Oberlin College Archives in 2003. Eleven years after receipt of the main body of the congressional papers of Don J. Pease, and some six months after the death of Pease, J. William Goold donated sixteen linear feet of records relating to Pease’s service in the Ohio General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Goold, who had served as Pease’s chief legislative assistant during that public service, for reasons unknown to us maintained these voluminous files in the basement of his home in Falls Church, Virginia. Accessioned under 2003/002, the lot of papers constitutes a significant addition to the congressional collection, providing new and weighty historical documentation of major events during the Pease years of service. Most prominent among these areas are the files relating to the 1978 U.S. Trade Bill with Uganda, which Pease, as a freshman congressman, spearheaded and sponsored. The Goold addition also includes a small grouping of files from Pease’s time in the Ohio Statehouse and a much larger collection of papers from Pease’s sixteen years in the U.S. House of Representatives. The individual files were added as a separate subgroup and placed at the rear of the collection to date the late entry of this body of material into the documentary corpus bearing the name of Don J. Pease.

The eighth subgroup is a small group of files dating from after Don J. Pease’s retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992. After retiring from the House, Pease returned to his home of Oberlin, Ohio, where he continued to speak, engage in political debate, and educate others through service as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Politics (and then emeritus in retirement) in Oberlin College’s Department of Politics. This subgroup contains notes, speeches, clippings, and correspondence from this time.

The ninth subgroup contains materials from Pease assistant J. William Goold that provide additional depth to the later years of Pease’s time in Congress.  Though not focused on any particular legislative effort, the papers mainly relate to Pease’s drive to eliminate the worst forms of child labor around the world.  It contains speeches by both Pease and Goold on the subject, as well as newspaper clippings, correspondence, research materials, and Congressional records documenting the later years of Pease’s work.

This tenth subgroup constitutes the second, and larger part of the 2010 accretion from Pease’s assistant, J. William Goold.  After Pease’s retirement from Congress in 1992, Goold went on to work as a legislative assistant in the offices of several other members of Congress, namely, Representative George Brown of California, Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey. In addition, he served as the Staff Director of the House Progressive Caucus. Outside of the government, Goold also worked as a Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning Coordination in the International Affairs Department of the AFL-CIO and Solidarity Center. The files included here document Goold’s continued work on issues inspired by Pease’s career, primarily in the area of international child labor and worker rights.