I take pride in the political button collection my wife and I (mostly her) have assembled. We have a “Colin Powell for president 1996” button; a “King Re-elect the governor” button, a “McGovern/Shriver” and a “Nixn/Agnew.”
Not bad, but our collection couldn’t hold a candle to the one the late Mike Schulze amassed. In 1990, Schulze estimated he owned more than 5,000 political buttons and a ton of other political memorabilia.
The Peabody resident, who died on April 28 at the age of 76, was a political junkie through and through who loved the rough-and-tumble pace of politics in a democracy. It’s easy to imagine Schulze at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 or making his way through the cigar smoke and forests of signs that defined early 20th century political conventions.
He was a veteran campaigner for former U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry. He campaigned for Democrat Gary Hart in 1984 and worked the crowd at Democratic National Conventions. Politics was in Schulze’s blood: His mother, Priscilla, loved campaigning, and joined him on the rollercoaster ride that defined Hart’s ill-fated bid for the presidency.
Peabody politics is not for the meek and mild, and Mike Schulze knew how to play the game. He also knew, as the late Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said, that all politics is local.
For all the time he spent on the national campaign trail in the 1980s, he also dug into local issues in Peabody, where he was co-founder of the Save Brooksby Farm Committee.
A 1965 Lynn English High School graduate and Navy veteran, Schulze won the Peabody Democratic City Committee chairmanship in 1990. He mixed it up a year later with Republican City Committee Chairman Nick Nikitas who committed the cardinal sin of criticizing top local Democrats, including the late state Sen. Frederick Berry.
A Daily Evening Item story quoted Nikitas as saying Berry has “long ridden the coattails” of former state Senate President William Bulger.
Schulze doubled down and compared Nikitas’ criticism to former Massachusetts Republican Party Executive Director Alexander “Sandy” Tennant’s brawling style.
His love for national politics also made Schulze, like Sam and Rick Vitali of Lynn, an early supporter of President Joseph R. Biden. In 1987, when then-U.S senator Biden ended his presidential campaign, Schulze took a dim view of the media uproar over claims that a speech Biden delivered contained phrases used by British politician Neil Kinnock without attribution.
Once again, Schulze took a shot at Republicans by pointing out former President Ronald Reagan’s penchant for quoting Democrats.
“The average person couldn’t care less about this stuff,” he opined to a Daily Evening Item reporter.
Schulze didn’t just campaign for candidates — he became one. He ran for the Ward 3 City Council seat and for library trustee, and he threw his hat in the ring in 1994 for the 12th Essex seat in the Massachusetts House.
Like Lincoln, Schulze regarded losing an election not as an end point, but as a beginning of his next adventure into politics. He embraced political campaigns for their proverbial explosions and smoke, and he talked issues when he ran for office. He said, “I know what it takes to get the job done,” and he had the political knowledge to back up those words.
In the true spirit of democracy, Schulze opposed term limits for politicians — a favorite campaign theme for people making their first, usually unsuccessful, bid for public office.
“You get somebody in there who does a good job, and then take him out?” he said in his trademark direct fashion.
Schulze simply loved politics. He understood that it is the process, not the personalities, that count. The person who stood up and publicly and passionately made a case for change counted for something in Mike Schulze’s book.
His obituary recalls a life lived richly with forays to antique stores and flea markets and enjoying Guinness. It says he also loved Bob Dylan songs and maybe tonight I’ll bang one out on the Yamaha in memory of a good man.