The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

226 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
nine Minutes AfteR the poLLs cLosed in Washington State, ABC News
announced Adams was the likely winner based on exit polls. The puncturing
of the first balloon went largely unnoticed at Gorton’s electionnight
party at the Westin Hotel since hardly anyone was watching TV. At
8:35, they paid attention when the first returns gave Adams a 10-point
lead. “It can change in a hurry,” someone said reassuringly. It could and
it did. By 10:20, a huge cheer of relief went up as Gorton pulled even. He
made an appearance at 11:40. “The reports of our demise were greatly
exaggerated,” he declared with a hopeful grin before brushing past a
crowd of reporters en route to the back door. He was worried. By 1:30 a.m.,
buoyed by the last returns from King County, Adams had a cushion the
absentees couldn’t erode. The party was over. A reporter found Pritchard
waiting for an elevator. Why was Gorton losing? “More people in this
state are Democrats than Republicans,” Slade’s old friend said. “It’s a
tough state” for a Republican. 33
A big man wearing a Ronald Reagan mask and a sign that said “loser”
brought down the house when he strolled into the Adams campaign
headquarters. 34
Brock Adams was victorious by 26,540 votes, 50.66 percent of the total
cast. He carried King County by 34,000, 54 percent, and posted solid
margins in the other traditionally Democratic counties on the west side of
the Cascades—notably Grays Harbor, Pierce and Cowlitz. That offset
Gorton’s advantage on the East Side, although Adams ran him a surprisingly
close race in Spokane County. Skamania County, where the Republicans
were furious with Slade over his support for the Columbia Gorge
protection plan, went for Adams 2,312 to 602.
Five other Republican senators elected with Reagan six years earlier
were also defeated. The president’s coattails were gone. He was now a
lame duck with a Democratic Congress that could subpoena Iran-Contra
players to its heart’s content. Adams would be joining a new Democratic
majority in the U.S. Senate, together with Harry Reid of Nevada and Tom
Daschle of South Dakota. One of the Republicans’ few new faces was
former POW John McCain, succeeding the retiring Barry Goldwater in
Arizona. On Seattle’s Queen Anne hill, Warren and Jermaine Magnuson
were euphoric. Tip O’Neill, retiring from the House, declared, “If there
was a Reagan revolution, it’s over.” 35
Losing was an experience Gorton had difficulty intellectualizing. He
had been 9-0 at the ballot box. On the morning of November 5, he strode
into a storefront office on Seattle’s Denny Regrade to take his place in
front of a semi-circle of cameras and reporters. A campaign aide had