2015 DNC Summer Meeting Button

This button is from the 2015 August DNC meeting that featured 4 out of the 5 major Democratic candidates for the Democratic party's presidential nomination. It is three inches. One of the many party themed buttons showing multiple candidates we will see from the political party events in 2015-2016.

Gore Family BBQ Pin

Some new national items found their way in my mailbox two weeks ago. I don't usually go out of my way to purchase items from other states, but these were convention and single day event related so I went for them.

I posted a few images on the APIC facebook page and got some responses. While they are fairly uncommon and even a rare one or two, because they are mostly Gore related items they do not set the hearts of collectors afire with need. Most were between $5 and $15 each. One pin did draw me to the lot a little more. It was this Gore Family BBQ pin from 1997.

I have found only two brief mentions of the 2nd Annual Gore Family BBQ from clippings in 1998, but nothing on the 1st Annual Gore Family BBQ, which is apparently where this pin is from. What was the purpose of this BBQ? Was it to help organize his partisans in Tennessee to keep them focused on 2000? Was it to raise money for local candidates? If you can find a newspaper article from the period, I would appreciate seeing it.

Gore items from 1996-2000 intrigue me the most of any Gore items. I have seen items promoting Gore for President in 2000 as early as 1997, on the heels of finishing the 1996 election Gore and supporters got to planning his 2000 effort. If you have any Gore 2000 items that can be traced to this time period please feel free to share them.

Recent Finds August

Thanks to my friend Carla Axtman, I have some wonderful new buttons to start researching. A quick look on this button for Charles Luebbert for State Senator didn't yield much.

What I did find was just two articles in the Eugene Register Guard about 17 years apart mentioning that Mr. Luebbert worked for Freightliner Inc. The first article (or job posting) was in 1965. The second was a story highlighting layoffs of 1,000 employees at Freightliner in Oregon during the recession of the early 1980s.

Another archive held papers from the Urban League of Portland from the early 1970s, where Mr. Luebbert was fairly active and even nominated to serve on the Board of Directors. On the list of names on the side of the letter head, I noticed the name of Carlos Rivera. He was a candidate for Congress in 1974.

Hopefully more will turn up about Mr. Luebbert. The button contains a union bug and candidate info on curl.

The second button that Carla gave me was this one with the slogan: 'I'm for CALVERT'

This pin is from the Grants Pass area of Oregon. Has committee info on the curl, so we have a great place to start looking for information.  On my first hit in the ole google news archives is this doozy:
"JOSEPHINE COMMISSONER RECALLED IN LIGHT BALLOTING" from August of 1979. Hopefully this will lead to something really interesting. The reasons the article gives that he was officially recalled are very cut and dry and also very indicative of the region today. They claimed he was"causing unnecessary expansion of county government", "voting for foolish county projects" and last but not least "building a political empire!"

Not much else besides the news of the recall. I will have to seek out local archives and do a little more digging. Two great mystery pins have started to have their mystery solved. Local buttons are always fun to get just for sake of learning about some of the wild stories in local government.

Morse 1962 Postcards

When looking over my Wayne Morse items I am always perplexed at how few items from his 1962 re-election campaign I have been able to find outside of brochures. There are two postcards that look pretty much the same from the front, but on the reverse have two separate layouts.

The front of these two cards look very similar, they both feature Morse standing next to a globe holding his glasses. One is slightly wider and shorter than the other.

Here is the photo that appears on the card

Harold Stassen Owned Dewey Item

I have few items in my collection that come with as interesting of a story as this small Thomas Dewey for President foldout brochure.

It is an Oregon Dewey item issued during the 1948 campaign. I have no idea how rare this item is, but even if it was a common item, the place it came from gives it all the significance. APIC member Paul Bengston from Minnesota had a chance to go a sale of former Governor Harold Stassen's storage unit after Stassen passed away.

100k Collection Stolen at Troy Show

Two fellow collectors were victims of theft this weekend at the Troy, Michigan Show. Over 100k in political items were stolen from Ken Hosner and Mark Evans, both long time dealers in the political collecting hobby. You can read the full story here and if you are looking on ebay, craigslist, estsy and other sites and come across deals too good to be real, double check with someone and if you are suspicous contact the Troy Police Department.

A reward is currently being collected by APIC members to help ensure the items are returned to their owners.

We can only hope that this story has a similar ending as the one of Wes Berger from a decade ago, when his collection was stolen and returned. You can read that story here.

Blaine Whipple Remembered

Whipple meeting JFK

Blaine Whipple probably isn't a household name to many today. If you lived in Washington County 40 years ago, you probably would have known it. He was a State Senator that represented the Beaverton area. Twice he ran for Congress in the 1960s. He was Chair of the Washington County Democrats, an Executive Director of the state Democratic party, and member of the DNC. He served in various other elected positions in Washington County during the 80s and 90s.

More McCall Items Turn Up

At the recent Oregon APIC Meeting we heard from Lincoln County Commissioner Bill Hall about his upcoming novel called McCallandia. The novel is about Tom McCall becoming President of the United States.

Our members and guests brought in their McCall related items and some even had items for trade and sale. I was able to trade a duplicate McCall poster for some items I did not have yet. One of the items was the above bumper sticker from McCall's 1978 comeback campaign.

I traded this 1970 McCall bumper sticker for another 1970 McCall bumper sticker.

Dave Frohnmayer Remembered

Over the last week I have read and heard many tributes from Oregonians of all walks of life about Dave Frohnmayer. I decided it was time to post some items from his many campaigns for political office. Frohnmayer was thrust into the statewide spotlight of running for governor in 1990 when an opportunity presented itself to run for that office. He was the frontrunner, and maybe if it had been 1986 he might very well have won. 1990, in Oregon and the rest of the country divisions were forming within the Republican Party. At the Dorchester Conference GOP electeds like Packwood and Frohnmayer met to figure out how to get rid of Oregon GOP Chairman T.J. Bailey, a representative of the 'New Right' of the party. Bailey was replaced by a business executive named Greg Berkman. This rift may have helped spur a third party candidacy from Al Mobley in the 1990 election. This split, would cost Frohnmayer the winning coalition he would need to beat Oregon Secretary of State Barbara Roberts in the fall.

Pins from the top 3 candidates in November of 1990

Recent Oregon Finds

Some great Oregon items have been popping up online over the last few weeks. We thought we would share some that our members have recently picked up.

The first is a great Nixon single day event from 1952 when he was running for Vice President with Ike Eisenhower.

A very desirable item for not only Nixon or Eisenhower collectors but us Oregon collectors as well. OR-APIC member John Silvertooth explains that event was part of a train tour during the Checkers incident and that there was a demonstration at the train station regarding Checkers. This event was just three days before Nixon would be forced to make his famous Checkers speech.

Photo is Morse of Course!

An old newsprint photo has been causing some discussion amongst collectors on the APIC facebook page. I was searching for photos used in newsprint of collectors and their collections when I stumbled upon this photo of Emanuel Ress from 1960. He is inspecting laminated prints for 1960 presidential hopefuls that he plans to sell to the public. As you can see there are pins for Nixon, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and several for Senator Wayne Morse.

Morse of course, was the Oregon Democrat running for President in the 1960 primaries. While he was only officially on the ballot in three contests (Maryland, DC, and Oregon) he claimed to have organizers working for him in most states that held state conventions to select delegates. I am a huge Morse fan and wrote my last political science paper in college on his 1960 effort. I have so far been unable to find ay firm details on these various efforts outside of those three mentioned above, but, like so much political organizing today it may have gone largely unnoticed.

Ress inspecting the quality of his prints for buttons.

The Neuberger Record

We've posted about Maurine Neuberger before. I recently picked up a record album from 1960. I had seen it on ebay for a few months, but listed for more than I thought it should go for until it recently came down in price. I grabbed it. What it contains is a cache of old campaign ads made for radio. There are 9 ads in total and I can't wait to hear them.

What makes this record so interesting is that it is possibly full of ads that were never used in the May 1960 campaign. Earlier that year, Oregon's junior Senator had passed away. He was only 47.  This record may be full of campaign advertisements from his 1960 re-election effort. Then again, they could be ads from the joint Special and Regular May Primary for Maurine Neuberger. I will find out when get the old record machine up and running. I can't wait to listen.

George Romney Dinner Ticket

This ticket from a fundraising dinner in 1967 to benefit Oregon House Republicans featured a keynote by Michigan Governor George Romney. It is noted in a longer article about Romney from the Owosso Argus-Press. The very end of the article mentions that a former Mark Hatfield aide is now working for Romney.

I picked this ticket up on a New Years Eve adventure in Salem. It was at one of the local antique shops. There is a quick blurb about the dinner it here (scroll down until you see PORTLAND)

25 dollars doesn't seem like much to attend a dinner with a potential presidential candidate a little under a year before the Oregon '68 primary. Then again, we only have current 'per plate' dinners to compare too.  Oregon APIC member John Silvertooth stated he was in the audience at the speech. I wonder if he can dig up any other memorabilia from the event.

Romney did not last long in the '68 race. He withdrew after weeks of problems associated with his 'brainwashed' comments regarding the Vietnam war. The first article linked mentions the comments and the start of the fallout from them.

He ended up withdrawing from the race before the first primary.

Al Ullman Tweeted At Me

Oregon APIC member Grant Schott tweeted this neat photo of Congressman Al Ullman to me over the weekend. I thought I would share it here.

This photo was taken in 1956 during a Stevenson and Democratic campaign rally at Bonneville Dam. Note the silver shoe lapel pin and the Oregon Needs Morse 7/8 inch pin. Of course, Ullman is wearing a much larger pin with his name on it.

Ullman was a legendary political mover and shaker in Congress. As we have mentioned before, the highpoint of his congressional influence came as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee from 1974-1981.

It is always fun to find a photo of an Oregon politician wearing some campaign regalia. Thanks  @grantschott

Have a photo share with us? Just post it here in the comments.