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Claudine Schneider

Representative, 1981–1991, Republican from Rhode Island

Claudine Schneider Congressional Pictorial Directory, 98th Congress

The first woman elected from Rhode Island to the U.S. House of Representatives, Claudine Schneider also was the first Republican Representative to serve the state in more than 40 years. During her five terms in Congress, Schneider earned a reputation as one of the House’s strongest environ-mental advocates.1

Claudine Schneider was born Claudine Cmarada in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1947, the eldest of three children. Her father was a tailor.2 She graduated from Pittsburgh’s Winchester–Thurston High School in 1965, before studying at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania and the University of Barcelona in Spain. She received a B.A. in languages from Vermont’s Windham College in 1969. She later attended the University of Rhode Island’s School for Community Planning in 1975. After graduation, Cmarada moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked as executive director of Concern, Inc., a national environmental education organization. Engaged to Dr. Eric Schneider, she moved with him to Narragansett, Rhode Island, in 1970 when he took a position as a research scientist at the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Ocean Management Studies. In 1973, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, a rare form of cancer in the lymph nodes, which she battled for five years. After twelve years of marriage, Claudine and Eric Schneider were divorced in 1985. Despite her continuing battle with cancer, Claudine Schneider became involved in the Rhode Island environmental movement. She founded the Rhode Island Committee on Energy in 1973, and the following year, she became executive director of the Conservation Law Foundation. In 1974, she led a group of concerned community and environmental groups, launching the first successful campaign in the United States to halt the construction of a nuclear power plant near her home in Charlestown, Rhode Island.3

In the mid-1970s, Claudine Schneider aspired to run as a Democrat for one of Rhode Island’s two seats in the U.S. House but found little support among party leaders. Rarely did a candidate win without the support of the statewide machine and, though both parties were well-organized at all levels in Rhode Island politics, the Democratic Party had enjoyed a strong statewide majority since the 1930s.4 A political moderate, Schneider switched party allegiances in 1978, finding more support from the minority GOP.5 That same year, after her husband declined to seek the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Schneider expressed her own interest. Republican leaders had a different candidate in mind; however, they offered Schneider a chance for a U.S. House seat in a district that included Providence and the state’s southern beaches.6 She ran a competitive race against Democratic incumbent Edward Beard.7 A former house painter, Beard’s blue-collar background appealed to the capital city’s ethnic Italian neighborhoods.8 Schneider won 48 percent of the turnout, coming within 9,000 votes of Beard.9 She continued her environmental pursuits and, in addition, she attracted more publicity as a television producer and a public affairs talk show host for a statewide Sunday morning program. She challenged Beard again in 1980 when he ran for a fourth term. This time Beard’s reputation for being quarrelsome and ill-informed hurt his reputation.10 Schneider, on the other hand, garnered more ethnic appeal by taking Italian lessons. She won an upset victory, winning with 55 percent of the vote as the first woman to represent Rhode Island.11 The first Republican to win either of the state’s two House seats since 1938, Schneider was re-elected to the four succeeding Congresses, enjoying increasingly larger margins of victory.12 At 72 percent, her 1986 and 1988 victories were the highest percentage for a GOP candidate in Rhode Island since 1878.13

Claudine Schneider arrived for the 97th Congress (1981–1983) insisting that she was not a liberal Republican, but outside her economic policies, her voting record indicated otherwise.14 Schneider tended to be a fiscal conservative, allying with her fellow Republicans on issues such as balancing the federal budget and curbing inflation.15 “We’ve got to stop the government from spending more money,” she said. “I don’t look to the government to solve our problems.”16 Schneider stopped short of slashing the social programs on which her working-class constituents depended, claiming, “We can help them, but we can do it in a cost-efficient fashion.”17 However, Schneider quickly earned a reputation as a GOP critic of President Ronald Reagan’s conservative social agenda. She opposed the President’s position 75 percent of the time, more than the average for House Democrats. Her liberal district urged her in this direction; during her freshman term, she estimated that her constituent mail ran 19-to-1 against the President.18

Schneider’s committee assignments recognized her environmental expertise. She served on the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries and the Committee on Science, Space and Technology. In the 98th Congress (1983–1985), Schneider was appointed to the Select Committee on Aging—an appropriate appointment, as Rhode Island had the second oldest population in the country.19 Her differences with President Reagan often translated into differences with the Republican Party leadership in Congress, which consequently excluded her from some important committee assignments. For the 101st Congress (1989–1991), she lost a bid to the prestigious Energy and Commerce Committee, the prime forum for the discussion of environmental issues.20 Schneider rose to Ranking Member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agricultural Research, and Environment.

Given her background, protecting the environment became the predictable cornerstone of Representative Schneider’s work in Congress. Her first and greatest environmental triumph was her work on a multi-year battle to close the Clinch River nuclear reactor. A private and federally funded project, the Clinch River Nuclear Reactor was scheduled to open near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, before the James Earl “Jimmy” Carter administration halted its construction in 1977. However, a powerful lobby, which included President Reagan and Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker, Jr., all endorsed the reactor’s continued construction in the early 1980s. As one of Clinch River’s most vocal critics, Schneider called the project “a confederacy of corporate issues.”21 She teamed with other moderate GOP freshmen to fight its continued construction on the grounds that the project’s costs outweighed its benefit. In May 1981, Schneider convinced the fiscally conservative Science Committee to cut $230 million in additional funding. In 1983, she offered legislation which eliminated the remaining federal funding for the Clinch River project. This proved to be the final blow, shutting down the severely underfunded project. Upon the Clinch River reactor’s demise, Schneider proudly claimed, “We won it on the economic argument. This was a total, complete victory.”22

As a former television host, Schneider knew how to attract attention to some of her core issues. In an effort to promote a more peaceful relationship with the Soviet Union, Representatives Schneider and George Brown of California headed a project, called “CongressBridge,” to exchange live satellite transmissions on television between the Supreme Soviet and Members of Congress.23 When the project launched in 1987, Schneider commented, “For too long we have seen each other only as warmongers. The time is ripe for new ways of thinking. [We are] getting beyond posturing.”24

Her ability to garner the spotlight and her reputation for being feisty and independent made Schneider a well-respected politician in Rhode Island. In 1984, the state Republican Party considered her as a challenger for Senator Claiborne Pell’s seat. She waited, however, until 1990 to take on the popular incumbent, boosted by her clear 1986 and 1988 House victories in a district so large that her elections were nearly statewide. The race between Schneider and Pell drew national attention, as Schneider ran close to the Senator in some polls.25 A popular stalwart in Rhode Island politics, Pell mostly relied on his reputation and television spots in his bid for re-election to a sixth term. Schneider, on the other hand, campaigned vigorously, returning to Rhode Island every weekend. She boasted a grass roots campaign, even walking unescorted through a dangerous West Providence neighborhood to draw attention to its social problems. As the contest drew closer, President George H.W. Bush made a stop in Providence to speak on Schneider’s behalf. On the eve of the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, foreign policy was a popular issue among Rhode Island voters. Pell’s experience on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gave him the edge over Schneider, whose foreign policy experience included her televised debates with the Supreme Soviet and attendance at a Conference on Peace and disarmament in April 1985.26 Rhode Islanders also strongly supported the Democratic Party, as one voter commented before heading to the polls, “I’d vote for her; she’s young and she’s got drive. But that might bring the Senate into Republican hands. That might prevent me from voting for her.”27 Schneider failed to unseat the popular incumbent, receiving 38 percent of the vote.28

After leaving Congress in 1991, Schneider remained active in the environmental protection movement. She invested in a Massachusetts-based consulting company, which sold environmentally sound energy systems in Central and South America. Schneider also accepted a teaching position at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Following Democratic presidential candidate William J. Clinton’s 1992 victory, she received an appointment to the Competitiveness Policy Council.29 In 1999, Schneider was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. She sought a successful, alternative treatment. Having defeated the disease twice, she settled permanently in Boulder, Colorado.30

Further Reading

“Schneider, Claudine,” Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, 1774–Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000136.

Manuscript Collections

University of Rhode Island (Kingston, RI), Special Collections, University Library. Papers: 1973–1990, 63.5 linear feet. The Claudine Schneider Papers, transferred through Schneider’s office manager, were donated by the Congresswoman in 1990 and 1991. Prior to their transfer, the records were housed in Schneider’s Washington, D.C., office. Included are official records from Schneider’s five terms (1981–1991) as the U.S. Representative from Rhode Island’s second district. The collection deals chiefly with Schneider’s political campaigns and House service but includes materials predating her congressional career which relate to her later legislative work.

University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK). The Julian P. Kanter Commercial Archive, Department of Communication. Video cassettes: 1990, four video cassettes. Includes 35 commercials used during Schneider’s campaigns for the 1990 U. S. Senatorial election in Rhode Island, Republican Party.

Footnotes

  1. “Schneider: Ex-Rep. Again Ill With Cancer,” 8 April 1999, National Journal.
  2. William K. Gale, “Claudine’s Back in Town–Ex-Congresswoman Returning to Give a Speech,” 17 April 2001, Providence Journal Bulletin: 1F.
  3. Margot Hornblower, “Charging In,” 22 December 1980, Washington Post: A1.
  4. David R. Mayhew, Placing Parties in American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986): 24–27.
  5. Politics in America, 1990 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1989): 1349; Colman McCarthy, “Bridging the East-West Gap,” 28 December 1986, Washington Post: A1.
  6. Politics in America, 1990: 1349.
  7. Mayhew, Placing Parties in American Politics: 27.
  8. Politics in America, 1990: 1349.
  9. Kathy Sawyer, “More Women Seeking Office In rsquo;80 Election,” 14 October 1980, Washington Post: A1; A.O. Sulzenberger, Jr., “More Women Than Ever May Win Congress Seats,” 1 September 1980, New York Times: A1.
  10. Politics in America, 1990: 1349.
  11. Luica Mouat, “Women in Politics: Steady Progress,” 6 November 1980, Christian Science Monitor: 8.
  12. Politics in America, 1990: 1349.
  13. Ibid., 1348; “Election Statistics, 1920 to Present,” http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/index.html.
  14. Politics in America, 1990: 1347.
  15. Almanac of American Politics, 1990 (Washington, D.C.: National Journal Inc., 1989): 1090.
  16. Hornblower, “Charging In.”
  17. Ibid.
  18. Politics in America, 1990: 1347; Steven V. Roberts, “G.O.P. ‘Gypsy Mothers’ Test Their Wings,” 26 July 1981, New York Times: E4.
  19. See Catherine Foster, “Rhode Island Senate Race Takes Politeness Prize,” 26 October 1990, Christian Science Monitor: 7.
  20. Politics in America, 1990: 1347.
  21. Joanne Omang, “House Science Unit Votes to Pull Plug on Nuclear Project,” 8 May 1981, Washington Post: A20.
  22. Martin Tolchin, “Senate Vote Virtually Kills Clinch River Atom Reactor,” 27 October 1983, New York Times: A24.
  23. Politics in America, 1990: 1347.
  24. Barbara Gamerekian, “U.S. and Soviet Legislators Are Planning to Debate on TV,” 12 April 1987, New York Times: 12.
  25. John Dillin, “GOP Likely to Gain Senate Seats,” 18 April 1990, Christian Science Monitor: 1.
  26. Judy Mann, “Defense Queens,” 21 June 1985, Washington Post: C3.
  27. Catherine Foster, “Rhode Island Senate Race Takes Politeness Prize,” 26 October 1990, Christian Science Monitor: 7.
  28. Ross Sneyd, “Democrats Sweep Rhode Island from Governor’s Mansion on Down,” 7 November 1990, Associated Press.
  29. James M. O’Neill, “Environmentalist Schneider Finds Bully Pulpit in New Role,” 19 June 1994, Providence Journal Bulletin: 2B.
  30. “Schneider: Ex-Rep. Again Ill With Cancer,” 8 April 1999, National Journal; Gale, “Claudine’s Back in Town.”