Nany Evans oral history.indd - Washington Secretary of State

I’m due to go back to Olympia.”
Hughes: Sort of like your mom telling you and Dan, “I’ll stay for six months.”
Evans: Exactly. That’s exactly what it was. Of course, bless his heart, Bill stayed with us the
whole time (1983-89). It was great having him there because he was such a good friend.
Well, not only a good friend but he has so much sensibility about politics and people. He
did a great job of running the office because you hire a lot of young people, primarily. We
kept Sam Spina, who had been one of Scoop’s key people. He led the L.A.’s, legislative
assistants, and was sort of their boss, the guy who kept all the legislation moving. He was
great. He’d been there through several senators and was with us the whole time. All the
L.A.s were kids – bright young people. We still get together with them a lot. In fact, Dan
had lunch with four of them recently. They call themselves “The council” – all women –
and periodically they ask Dan to lunch.
Hughes: That has to be one of the most gratifying things to see all those really bright
young people moving up in their careers.
Evans: All of them have done well. They had a really wonderful working relationship, and
part of it was because they all loved Bill. He has a great sense of humor and he had fun
with them. At the same time, he could be very tough when he needed to be tough and he
kept very good control of that office. And they liked Dan as well, of course. And so it was
a fun office to be around. They worked hard and then they played hard. Dan would be in
the office and we’d have to go somewhere at 7 o’clock at night, and there they’d all be with
the pizzas out and they were all having a good time, still working. Bill was with us for five
years and that was a great, great help. Pat stayed in Olympia but she came out a lot.
Hughes: Did you go back to D.C. almost immediately after Dan took office?
Evans: No, I couldn’t. I still had a house to run in Olympia, too. I had to transition us out
of there. I went back a couple weekends just to house hunt and to try to figure out where
we’re going to live. Then I had to come home and pack up the house. Evergreen was
very nice and let us extend through Christmas, although we didn’t spend Christmas there
because we were pretty much packed up by then. We actually moved out, I suppose, the
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