Interview with David Blanchette # HP-A-L-2015-023.01 Interview # 1: June 19, 2015 Interviewer: Mark Depue
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Interview with David Blanchette # HP-A-L-2015-023.01 Interview # 1: June 19, 2015 Interviewer: Mark DePue COPYRIGHT The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without the authorization from the Audio-Visual Curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, 112 N. 6th Street, Springfield, Illinois 62701. Telephone (217) 785-7955 A Note to the Reader This transcript is based on an interview recorded by the ALPL Oral History Program. Readers are reminded that the interview of record is the original video or audio file, and are encouraged to listen to portions of the original recording to get a better sense of the interviewee’s personality and state of mind. The interview has been transcribed in near- verbatim format, then edited for clarity and readability, and reviewed by the interviewee. For many interviews, the ALPL Oral History Program retains substantial files with further information about the interviewee and the interview itself. Please contact us for information about accessing these materials. DePue: Today is Friday, June 19, 2015. My name is Mark DePue, Director of Oral History at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Today I'm excited to have Dave Blanchette sitting in Tom Schwartz's old office, here at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.2 Good morning, Dave. DePue: You have been interviewed before by our program. I think that was in 2009.4 There's been a lot that's happened in your life, hasn't there?5 David Blanchette 2 Tom Schwartz was Director of Research and Collections at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Mueum beginning in 2005. His oral history interview can be accessed atintatefoundallinois.gov/alplm/library/collections/OralHistory/historiansspeak/Pages/SchwartzTom.aspx. 4 Dave Blanchette’s previous oral history interview can be accessed at https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/library/ collections/oralhistory/Organizations and Agencies/ihpalegacy/Pages/BlanchetteDavid.aspx. 5 Dave Blanchette’s previous oral history interview can be accessed at cttps://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/library/collections/oralhistory/Organizations and Agencies/ihpalegacy/Pages/BlanchetteDavid.aspx. David Blanchette Interview # HP-A-L-2015-023.01 Blanchette: There's always something happening in my life, Mark. DePue: You were the long-time public information officer (PIO) for the presidential library and museum. Before it was that, it was the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA). I guess you've always had that title, even though the library museum was part of IHPA. To a certain extent, we're going to overlap with the interview you had with Julie Dirksen, back in 2009. But in conversations you’ve shared some interesting anecdotes that I think we need to dive into a little bit more, to better preserve the history of Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and I appreciate your willingness to do that. Then there's obviously a lot to talk about since 2009 that's happened. I know that you just recently came off of working on the campaign for former Governor Pat Quinn [41st Illinois governor, 2009-2015]. Blanchette: Well, not the campaign but actually directly for him in the governor's office. DePue: During the campaign season though? Blanchette: Correct. DePue: I'm looking forward to including that portion, as well, which fits better in our Illinois Statecraft project. Why don't you just give me a little bit of an overview of your early history and how you ended up working for IHPA. I believe that was starting in 1989? Blanchette: Correct. The story starts in 1979, actually. I was studying journalism at MacMurray College in Jacksonville and was looking for a way to support myself, pay my way through college. There was an opening that came available at a radio station in Jacksonville, WJIL/WJVO. I spoke with the general manager, Ron Gray, and he said, "Yes, it's a news position. Would you be interested in doing news?" And I said, "That's what I'm studying to be, is a journalist." I got the job at a radio station my sophomore year at college, so I was working as a journalist while studying to get a degree in journalism (laughs). It was interesting that a lot of the coursework I was taking, I had actually experienced that in my professional life. But I worked as a radio news director for about eight years. DePue: Did you always want to be in radio or TV? Blanchette: No. I just wanted to be in journalism, period. The fact that radio came open as a possibility, I just seized it. I’d never done a radio interview before, but people told me that I had a good speaking voice, and I would do fine. After a rough start of a couple of days, as anyone new to radio would do, I just kind of fell in love with the job. There was a big problem with that though. Radio, then and now, is a very low paying profession. And having met my future wife several years into 2 David Blanchette Interview # HP-A-L-2015-023.01 being a radio reporter and realizing, if I want to help support a family I need to make more money than this, I started looking for jobs elsewhere. At that time, which would have been the mid-1980s, patronage was still king in state government. I had heard that state government was a good place to work— decent salary, good benefits—but if you wanted a job there, you had to go through local party officials for whoever happened to be in power. Well, James R. Thompson [37th Illinois governor, 1977-1991] was in power at that time. I had a good relationship with then State Representative Tom Ryder. That relationship began the night Tom was chosen to succeed State Representative Jim Riley, who had been chosen to work for Governor Thompson. The county chairmen from the various counties in the district had met to select a successor to Jim Riley, and Tom Ryder was the surprise choice, a guy from Jerseyville. Very few people had heard of him politically. I heard the name; I found his name in the phonebook. So I called him at home, and I said, "Can I get a reaction to you on tape about being chosen the next state representative?" And he said, "I've been chosen the next state representative?" (both laugh). So my relationship began with Tom Ryder at that point. Also Vince Demuzio was my state senator, of the Democratic Party.6 He obviously wasn't of the same party as Jim Thompson, but he had a very good relationship with Governor Thompson. So I approached both of them [Ryder and Demuzio] and said I'd be interested in working for state government in some sort of communications capacity. Well, a couple of months passed before I heard from Tom, who said, "Go talk to these people at the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities," which is now part of DHS [Department of Human Services]. So I went in and had the interview, had a good interview, not realizing that the fact they told me to go talk to these people meant I had the job, that the interview was a formality, because patronage was still king. So I got the job as the assistant communications director at Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, working for David Devann. He was an old communications pro. He had worked for the federal government, and he had City of Chicago connections, and I learned a lot from him on the job. But just one anecdote from those years, a couple of anecdotes. The first anecdote is, I was sitting in my office a few weeks after getting the job. We had a lot of clerical help. It was in the Stratton Building, so I had an office on the ring of one of those big office areas. And the clerical folks sat out in the 6 Vince Demuzio was a Democratic member of the Illinois Senate from January 1975 until his death in April 2004. During his time in the Senate, he represented various portions of southwestern Illinois. At the time of his death, he was the most senior member of the Illinois Senate. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Demuzio) 3 David Blanchette Interview # HP-A-L-2015-023.01 middle. This beautiful young woman walks in my office and throws two Jim Thompson fundraiser tickets on my desk. I look at them, and it's for something I'd always wanted to go to but could never afford to go to because they were big blowout parties, great places. They were legendary. I said, "Thanks, I could never have afforded these tickets to go to this thing!" She kind of gave me a smile, and I heard people snickering, out in the office. I went back to work, typing. I looked, and she's still standing in the doorway smiling. I said, "Thank you very, very much." That's when the clerical people started howling, just outright howling. And she says, "You don't get it, do you?" I said, "Get what?" Then she explained to me that part of getting a patronage job is you've got to buy or sell fundraising tickets for the party. So that was my introduction into the world of patronage in state government (laughs).