The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

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ams said, “and the downside risk came true. . . .We hear all these statements
about Mr. Gorton being in the Oval Office and see these television
commercials showing him talking to the president. It makes me wonder,
whatever were they talking about?” Still, Christine Gregoire, an assistant
attorney general handling the state’s lawsuits over Hanford, said she was
encouraged by Reagan’s promise to obey the law. 28
Gorton’s pollsters told him he was eight points ahead when Reagan
arrived and six behind the day after he left. Stu Elway’s Oct. 31 snapshot
gave Adams a three-point lead, 47-44. However, after a lively internal debate,
The Seattle Times decided against printing the results, explaining a
week later that “we don’t think such election-eve or Election Day horserace
poll results serve any good purpose.” Like projections based on East
Coast exit polling, late polls also tend to anger readers who believe they
alter the outcome, wrote Alex MacLeod, the paper’s managing editor. 29
All of the polls agreed on one thing: 8 to 10 percent of the likely voters
hadn’t made up their minds, doubtless turned off by the raging negativity.
Ron Dotzauer, who had engineered Gardner’s 1984 gubernatorial victory,
said the seat of his pants told him the race was dead even and whoever
had the best finishing kick would win.
In the Tri-Cities, where Hanford’s reactors emerged ghost-like from
the cold morning fog on the last day of the campaign, the reporters on the
plane peppered Gorton with questions about why he hadn’t been able to
convince Reagan to review or reverse his Energy Department’s stance on
Hanford. Connelly listened intently while Gorton did his best to change
the subject as they hopped from Pasco to Yakima, then to Vancouver and
finally back home to Seattle. A large man with a walrus mustache, inquisitive
eyes and a voice that sometimes betrays a hint of weary incredulity
at the things politicians do and say, Connelly asked the question one
more time. Gorton cleared his throat and furrowed his brow. “Last Thursday
night was the first time he had heard anything about the subject, as
far as I could tell. He was not going to overrule a Cabinet department the
first time he heard something about it.” 30
As the campaign plane passed over Mount Adams, Gorton gazed for a
moment at a peak he had summited. He told Connelly that a tracking poll
conducted the night before showed him back up by six points. He discounted
a KIRO-TV poll that found Adams ahead by the same margin,
conceding, however, that there was “a fairly substantial undecided vote
out there—well over 20 percent, which could decide the election.” 31
“One of those polls is full of beans,” Sally Gorton piped up. They all
laughed. 32