The papers of Republican legislator Raymond Johnson are much more an expression of the political views of the people of his district than they are evidence of his personal views and actions. About 85% of the collection consists of constituent correspondence alphabeticallyh-arranged by name with no indexes to facilitate access to bill numbers or specific issues. At the same time, except for the 1967-1968 session when he was less burdened by caucus responsibilities, Johnson's responses to constituent correspondence generally consisted of routine acknowledgements. Very seldom do Johnson's letters contain any indication of his own views. There are some letters from both district and state businessmen and from leaders of the Republican Party, but these tend to be isolated items which are not revealing about his involvement in the legislative matters. As a result, although the correspondence contains some useful material on legislative issues such as aid to parchial schools, trucks and highway safety, the Sparta Child Care Center, and the 1974 budget proposed by Governor Patrick Lucey, it can be located only after tedious searching.
The CORRESPONDENCE is arranged first by legislative session and then alphabetically by name. For the 1967-1968 session in addition to the general correspondence there is also a small, incomplete subject file. Of special note here is the memo from the party concerning fundraising techniques.
The remainder of the collection consists only of biographical miscellany and subject files. Several useful types of files commonly found in the collections of Wisconsin legislators such as working bill and committee files, publicity and press material, and personal scrapbooks are completely absent.
BIOGRAPHICAL MISCELLANY includes several vitae, a folder of biographical clippings, a transcript of floor remarks assumed to have been delivered by Johnson, one 1967 newsletter, a letter to the League of Women Voters concerning his views on 1972 election issues, and xerox copies of the photographs received with the papers. The original prints have been filed in the Name File in the Visual and Sound Archives under the headings “Raymond Johnson” and “Wisconsin Senate.”
The SUBJECT FILES, unquestionably the most useful portion of the papers, refer to welfare, court reorganization, and Johnson's 1974 Supreme Court
campaign and are organized to correspond to the sequence of Johnson's involvement. The files on the Legislative Council's Task Force on Welfare Payments, of which Johnson was chairman, consist of chronologically-arranged correspondence and memoranda. The court reorganization files consist of information gathered by the Senate Judiciary Committee of which Johnson was a member which related to legislation introduced in 1973 to partially reorganize Wisconsin courts. Included are individual questionnaries completed by many Wisconsin judges concerning their views, analyses prepared by the Legislative Council, public statements by judges and others, and information on a citizen task force concerned with reorganization of the courts. The Supreme Court election files, which are relatively complete, contain some valuable material on political campaigning such as memoranda on planning strategy drafted by the campaign director and a manual. Also included are general correspondence, testimonial letters covering the period 1968-1974 which were apparently gathered for use in the campaign, speeches delivered by Johnson, advertising and press releases, and financial reports.
