6.J. Political Party Files, 1975-2022, bulk: 1985-2015

The Political Files document the activities of Senator Leahy related to national, senatorial, and statewide Democratic Party business, including conventions, strategy meetings, conferences, events, and fundraising for Democratic candidates. The files span most of the senator’s senatorial career, from 1975 to 2022, with the bulk of the material dating from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s. The subseries is primarily comprised of records related to the senator’s attendance and speaking engagements at Democratic National Conventions, Democratic Policy Committee Senate Issues Conferences, and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee trips, conferences, and other events. These records include briefing materials, speeches, memos, correspondence, event invitations, and ephemera. The subseries also contains some speeches and planning materials related to stumping events for Democratic candidates for President of the United States, a few years of Democratic Policy Committee bulletins from the early 1980s, files related to several political action committees, and a run of the senator’s general political correspondence from the 1990s and early 2000s. A few of the files document Marcelle Leahy’s participation in Democratic Party events. Staffers associated with the political files include multiple chiefs of staff (Sanford Kinzer, Ellen McCullough-Lovell, Ed Pagano, Luke Albee, and J.P. Dowd), Lovell’s assistant chief of staff, Todd Shelton, and Vermont State Director Tom Davis.