The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

11 | Unhappy Days
EXuding confidence, Gorton announced his candidacy for re-election
at the Olympic Hotel, a downtown Seattle landmark, in the
summer of 1972. The number of citizen complaints being resolved
by the Consumer Protection Division had tripled on his watch. His team
had taken down shady car dealers and exposed pyramid schemes, Gorton
boasted, punctuating each achievement with an index finger and a flipchart.
Now they were working to reduce motor-vehicle air pollution and
preserve public access to the ocean beaches. Federal grants to local police
were being expedited. If re-elected, he promised “robust” additional initiatives
to protect the public, including more scrutiny of mail-order merchandising,
which was gaining in popularity. 1
It was the calm before a swarm of political tornadoes. Gorton and Evans
were about to be immersed in a campaign season that at this writing
is rivaled for bitterness only by the 2004 Gregoire-Rossi race for governor.
They emerged with decisive victories that were clouded by scandal. Nearly
40 years later, Gorton related his side of the story with uncharacteristic
sadness. When he was done, he leaned back in his chair and stared at the
ceiling. Finally, his voice sinking an octave, he said, “I think that was the
most unhappy period in my life.”
Fred Dore was already off and running for attorney general in his
slam-bang style, handing reporters a sheaf of Xeroxed press clippings and
thank-you letters praising him as a fearless populist. In 1970, for reasons
never discerned, someone lobbed a stick of dynamite onto the roof of
Dore’s home on the periphery of a predominantly black Seattle neighborhood.
His wife Mary and four of their five children were at home but no
one was injured. Dore’s detractors, even some friends, used to josh that
he probably put someone up to it. Fred just laughed. He was as feisty as
they come. When he was 4, he came down with polio. Two years later he
lost his father. His mother told him he could still become president of the
United States if he worked hard enough.
In temperament and style, Gorton and Dore were as different as any
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