An Oral History Interview with MATTHEW FLYNN Interviewer
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WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY An Oral History Interview with MATTHEW FLYNN Interviewer: .Anita Hecht, Life History Services Recording Date: January 5, 2009 Place: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Length: 1.25 hours Matthew Joseph Flynn was raised in Harlem, New York, by Gerard and Geraldine Monahan Flynn. In 1965, he graduated from Portsmouth Priory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and then attended Yale University, earning a degree in Spanish. .After college, Flynn attended the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and in 1970, he was commissioned as an officer. He received an honorable discharge in 1972 to attend Law School at the University of Wisconsin. .After graduation, Flynn joined Quarles & Brady, a Milwaukee law firm, where he remains a partner. In 1978, when there was a vacancy in a Congressional District 9, Flynn decided to run for Congress and Senators William Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson campaigned on his behalf. District 9 was the most conservative district in the state, and he was defeated. Over the years Flynn and Sen. Proxmire campaigned for one another. In 1981, Flynn ran for Chair of the Democratic Party and won; in 1986, he ran for Senate, and in 1988 and 2004, for Congress. Flynn recalled Sen. Proxmire's uniquely personal campaign style and his well-known frugality. PROJECT NAME: PROXMIRE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Verbatim Interview Transcript NARRATOR: MATTHEW FLYNN INTERVIEWER: Anita Hecht INTERVIEW DATE: January 5,2009 INTERVIEW LOCATION: Milwaukee, Wisconsin INTERVIEW LENGTH: Approximately 1.25 Hours KEY: MF Matt Flynn BP Bill Proxmire SUBJECT INDEX HOUR1 Hour 1/00:00 MF Family History Educational Background/Introduction to Politics Hour 1/10:12 Reasons for Pursuing Law Work as Law Clerk Introduction to BP Work in Democratic Party Hour 1/20:25 First Meeting with BP BP's Campaigning Style BP's Voter Appeal MF's Work as Party Chair Hour 1/30:10 Role of Democratic Chair Democratic Party's View of BP PB's Political Independence Hour 1/39:55 Campaigning with BP BP's Beliefs on Social Issues Golden Fleece Awards BP's Speculated Reaction to Social Issues Today Hour 1/50:00 BP's Later Years/Alzheimer's MF's Continuing Contact with BP's Family BP's Legacy HOUR 2 Matthew Flynn Interview Transcript Proxmire Oral History Project Hour 2/00:00 BP Anecdotes BP Legacy Hour 2/10:00 The Genocide Treaty Importance of BP's Service to Wisconsin Fragmentation of Democratic Party Future of Political Parties BP's Influence on Current Wisconsin Politicians HOUR1 Hour 1/00:00 MF Family History, Educational Background/Introduction to Politics The date is January 5 in the year 2009. My name is Anita Hecht, and I have the great pleasure of interviewing Matthew Joseph Flynn in his office at Quarles and Brady in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on behalf of the William Proxmire Oral History Project for the Wisconsin Historical Society. So, thank you, Matt, for agreeing to participate. Thank you. I'd like to begin this interview with a bit of information about you and your background. First of all, when and where were you born? I was born in New York City, October 3 , 1947. The hospital actually was in Harlem, but my parents lived in the Bronx at the time and I grew up in the Bronx as a very young child. Tell me a little bit about your family history. Matthew Flynn interview Transcript Proxmire Oral History Project My father was a professor of Spanish at UWM - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee - from 1963 until he passed away in 1997. And he was an expert in, I would say, Golden Age Literature. He did his dissertation on Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz. Dad had a PhD [Doctor of Philosophy] from NYU [New York University], a Masters from Columbia University, got his BA [Bachelor of Arts Degree] from Fordham University. My mom didn't graduate from college. She worked at home raising the family and then as the children got older, worked in the post office. And she was the Postmaster and the Assistant Postmaster in some small towns just north of Milwaukee. They were both born in New York City; my mom in 1925, my dad in 1924. And their grandparents were, as well - my mom's grandparents were. My dad's came from Ireland in the 1880s, and my mom's came from Ireland sometime before then, perhaps as long ago as the '40s or '50s. Roman Catholic? Yes. And how many kids in your family? Eleven children in our family. What number were you? Number one. Matthew Flynn Interview Transcript A Proxmire Oral History Project Number one? Is that a big cross to bear, the oldest son? Well, you know, there are a lot of articles on sibling position. So regardless of how many are in the family - and I don't know how useful any of that is, but, you know, when you're the oldest, you do have certain responsibilities. So tell me about your youth a little bit, what the influences were on you, and [your] schooling. Yeah, it was a great youth. In a nut[shell], so many things came together. First of all, my parents are wonderful. It was a wonderful upbringing. It was also right after the Second World War, and America was entering its zenith of probably prosperity for the middle class and prestige internationally. It's always a great time to be an American, but it certainly was in the '50s and '60s. And I went to all Catholic schools except for kindergarten and sixth grade. My parents didn't believe in television, so we didn't own a television set until I was seventeen. So I just read all the time. I read all the Horatio Alger stories, GA Henty, Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, Poppy Ott and Jerry Todd, the Boyle Eyes, all of those. I would just read, you know, probably fifty or sixty books a year, and all those kinds of novels. And it was a great idyllic upbringing. So you went to Catholic boarding school when you were in high school? Yeah. And I got out of the eighth grade in '81 and I got a scholarship to Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island, which is run by the Benedictine Monks. It's a very good high school. Bobby Matthew Flynn interview Transcript 5 Proxmire Oral History Project Kennedy went there, and Teddy Kennedy was put there during the Second World War just to sort of give him somewhere to be, you know, because his father was over in Europe. And there are a number of- EJ Dionne, the columnist, there are a number of writers that have gone there, novelists; John Gregory Dunne. And it has a real literary tradition and it was a great, great education; went to class six days a week. It was great. When did you graduate? 1965. Tell me about political influences up to that point in your life. I would say my parents were pretty much independent. My mother's side of the family were probably more Republicans. My grandfather on my mom's side was a stockbroker, and for awhile he had his own financial services firm on Wall Street. And my dad's father worked in the Clerk of Court's Office in the Bronx, and both grandmothers worked at home. So, although my dad's mother, when my dad's father died, went out and became a medical librarian; but conservative on my mother's side, and my father's side less so. And I think that basically independent; politics wasn't really stressed. It wasn't? No, not at all. No, absolutely not. Matthew Flynn interview Transcript 6 Proxmire Oral History Project Do you remember when you first became interested in politics? When I went to college. In 1965,1 started college at Yale University and I think that the influence of certainly John Kennedy, his assassination and then Bobby Kennedy, at the time, made a powerful impression on me, and Martin Luther King. And also the times; the late '60s were times of political turmoil. And so in 1968,1 did some very, very rudimentary volunteer work in Bobby Kennedy's campaign, more in the Connecticut area where he didn't really need it. I didn't travel. I also did volunteer work in Abe Ribicoffs Senate campaign in Connecticut, and in Allard Lowenstein's congressional campaign down in Long Island in Nassau County in '68. And I got very interested in politics. So I joined a thing at Yale called The Connecticut Intercollegiate Student Legislature. Each of the colleges in Connecticut fielded a delegation of a mock State Legislature, and I was elected the State Chairman in 1968. And so I, yeah, I presided over a mock legislature and I enjoyed it. So in the back of my mind when I graduated - that summer I was the campaign manager for a guy named Paul Capra - C-A-P-R-A, who was running for mayor of New Haven. And that got me very interested. So I figured when I got out of the Navy, I might go into politics. So you graduated from Yale in 1969? Right. With a degree in ... Matthew Flynn interview Transcript 7 Proxmire Oral History Project Spanish. In Spanish. And before we move on from there, you said you also played sports. Yes. Was that a big part of your life? Yeah, very much. I love sports. I played - for instance, going back as a kid - little league, pony league, Babe Ruth league. I was on the All Star team for my little league in Franklin Township, New Jersey.