Senator Maddy Oral History Project

The legislation creating The Maddy Institute called for an oral history of Senator Ken Maddy to be conducted. Shortly before his death, the Senator sat for an extensive set of interviews about his experiences in Sacramento and his involvement in key state issues.

The key areas of discussion include: the role of the Big 5 (Governor, Speaker, President Pro Tem, and the Assembly and Senate Minority Leaders) especially with respect to the state budget; health policy; agriculture; welfare reform; and legislation affecting the horse racing industry. A transcript has been made of the interview, and that transcript has been read by colleagues and of Senator Maddy.

For recent articles, please click here. Now a second round of interviews is being conducted of those contemporaries by Eli Setenich. As those interviews are transcribed, reporters and scholars will be invited to review the material and to write articles that will be published by the Institute and circulated to interested parties around the state.

In addition, Senator Maddy's papers have been turned over to Fresno State's Central Valley Political Archive in the Henry Madden Library, and are available for study by scholars, reporters and others. The Archivist is Glenn Gray at (559) 278-8573 or ggray@csufresno.edu.

Transcripts from interviews with Ken Maddy are available at the California State Archive's website: www.sos.ca.gov/archives/level3_ohprog.html.