6. Campaign and Political Records, 1967-2022

The Campaign and Political Records document Patrick Leahy's eight successful campaigns for the U.S. Senate, as well as his work within the Democratic Party at the state and federal levels. The first eight subseries document each of Leahy's campaigns, followed by a subseries of Federal Election Commission records and a subseries of political records. Records within each subseries are arranged by topical groupings, with the exception of the chronologically arranged FEC records.

The records within this series originate from both Leahy's Senate offices and his campaign offices. The Leahy for Senate campaign operated separately from Leahy's Senate offices, as required by election laws. However, Senate Rule 41 permits a Senator to designate up to three political fund designees, who may handle campaign contributions on their own time without using Senate resources. The chief of staff and state director often served in this role.

At times, individuals working with campaign records in the Senate offices and the campaign offices pulled records from earlier campaigns and incorporated them into their working files. These have been maintained according to the later arrangement. In general, campaign subseries run from the swearing-in of the previous election to the swearing-in of the following election. Files related to campaign finances (excluding the separate subseries of FEC reports) are arranged with the relevant campaign, regardless of date.

Content and extent vary widely between the campaigns, but the following groupings are common: administrative, campaign director, chief of staff, communication, issues, ephemera, opponents, and voting analysis. The 1986 campaign subseries has by far the largest extent. The subseries for the 2010 and 2016 files are comparatively small, reflecting the transition to primarily digital workflows. Digital campaign files originating from the campaign offices are not included in the Leahy Papers.