The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

A goLd wAtch foR MAggie 157
Metcalf’s boast that he was “Jack the giant killer” really was a sling
with no stone. Magnuson trounced him. For good measure, he did it again
in their 1974 rematch.
Six years later, TV would play a decisive role in both campaigns. But
Magnuson was now 75 and Gorton was no Metcalf. Newman’s masterstroke
was another commercial inspired by that first survey on seniority.
It opened with a portrait of Jackson. The voice-over intoned, “Did you
know that Scoop Jackson, our junior senator, is 68 years old?” Jackson was
so vigorous that no one realized he was 68, but everyone knew Magnuson
was older. Shuffling along, he looked all of 75, while Jackson could have
passed for 58 and was recently rated as America’s most effective senator.
“But he will probably retire in six or 12 years,” the unseen announcer suggested.
“Isn’t it time to start building new seniority while we still have
Scoop Jackson in the Senate? That’s why now is the time to honorably
retire Senator Magnuson and replace him with an energetic, experienced,
intelligent public servant—Slade Gorton.”
Jackson was furious, telling reporters the ad made it seem as if he was
endorsing Gorton. “It’s deliberately misleading!” he shouted. Privately,
Scoop reportedly remarked, “That’s the greatest ad I’ve ever seen. How do
we force it off the air?” 10
with siX decAdes of senioRity, “Scoop and Maggie” were one of the
most formidable tag teams in Senate history. Ensconced at Appropriations,
Commerce, Interior, Energy and Armed Services, they greased
the skids of Washington’s postwar emergence as a progressive American
state. They built dams that transformed the Northwest economy
and pushed Washington to the forefront of aviation, consumer protection,
cancer research, fisheries and international trade. In his biography
of Magnuson, Shelby Scates observes that “They played to separate sides
of the voter psyche: Maggie, the earthy, carousing, good guy to have a
drink with; Scoop, the sober, up-at-daybreak, home-in-the-evening citizen.”
Magnuson, though, “had never enjoyed as broad or as deep a base
of support” as Jackson, notes Robert G. Kaufman, Jackson’s biographer.
By 1980, Magnuson’s infirmities “contrasted starkly with the vigor of
his opponent.”
The Gorton campaign featured photos and footage of Gorton jogging,
“Imagine a senator with 22 years of public-service experience who is still
in the prime of his life.” And imagine two candidates spending nearly $1
million on advertising, most of that on TV. It was a stunning sum at the
time. In terms of media-buy sophistication and total expenditures, the