Thomas L. Fries Papers

Thomas Fries represented the 86th State Legislative District for twelve years, January 1971-January 1983. This collection focuses on his papers from the 114th General Assembly (1981-1982), which pertain to legislation considered and/or composed by Thomas Fries and his colleagues serving on the Ohio House Finance Committee. The records tend to be somewhat repetitious and include verbatim copies of submitted and amended bills, form letter memos, and fiscal notes pertaining to legislation. “Scope and content” sheets descriptive of various bills are found in the folders dealing with Representative Fries’ co-legislators on the Finance Committee. The material pertinent to Fries’ political life aside from legislative matters includes correspondence between Finance Committee members, letters received expressing opinions for or against certain legislation, and Fries’ press releases. These documents illuminate the life of a politician concerned with duties of fundraising, attending inconclusive committee meetings, and other considerations. This collection falls rather evenly through 1981-1982, a time of increasing economic distress in Ohio. There is a slight preponderance of notes from 1982, which is understandable, considering it was an election year (although Fries declined to run for a seventh term). A weakness of the collection is the abundance of verbatim legislation, for example, H.B. 580 and other bills are listed in their entirety. The collection contains nothing more explanatory concerning the legislation than a series of brief “scope and content” sheets, which do not aid the ordinary citizen’s conception of a bill’s significance. The personalized general political category is clearly more beneficial in regards to gaining a general understanding of some of the aspects of a politician’s life and career in a two-year period.