This collection includes four interviews detailing inception and makeup of the Missoula New Party, its political activism, and its dissolution in 2001. The interviews were conducted between 2005 and 2006 by Jack Rowan. The interviewees discuss the New Party’s involvement in political campaigns, particularly the Living Wage Campaign, its relationship with other political parties, and its support of specific Missoula political candidates. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 400 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 4 interviews.
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James G. "Jim" McGrath Interview, January 16, 2006
James G. McGrath
James "Jim" McGrath, a former New Party member and Missoula city council member (1996-2004), discusses his involvement with progressive politics and the fractious nature of issue-oriented progressive groups. McGrath recalls his first New Party meeting and notes his amazement that progressive groups had come together ... Read More
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John Joseph Torma Interview, April 3, 2006
John Joseph Torma
John Torma, former member of the New Party and Missoula city council member (2000-2004), describes his political origins, his introduction to the New Party, its appeal to him, and his decision to run for city council as a non-partisan with support from the New Party ... Read More
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John Robert Pickering Fletcher Interview, October 30, 2005
John Robert Fletcher
John Fletcher, an early member of the Missoula New Party, discusses the origins of the local organization in 1993, its political leaning, its relation to the national New Party, and its relative autonomy. He describes the party’s success in electing to the city council members ... Read More
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Judy Smith Interview, April 30, 2006
Judy Smith
Community organizer and feminist activist Judy Smith describes the founding of the Missoula New Party in the early 1990s. Smith asserts that the novelty of the New Party was in its focus on electoral politics rather than policy politics, the latter being the primary sphere ... Read More