The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

238 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
The planets were aligning. McGavick was busy putting together the
campaign staff and working on a strategy to contain Hanford’s radioactivity.
Some conservative Republicans who would never forget or forgive
Gorton’s apostasy over Goldmark and Dwyer were promoting a McCainesque
newcomer named Leo Thorsness. A former Vietnam POW and
Medal of Honor recipient, Thorsness had lost to McGovern in the 1974
U.S. Senate race in South Dakota. He would opt to run for a seat in the
Washington State Legislature. Gorton’s opposition from the right would
come from Doug Smith, a little-known Everett lawyer who called Gorton
a big spender, and Bill Goodloe, a former state senator and newly retired
Washington Supreme Court justice who said frustrated conservatives
viewed Gorton as definitely “on the liberal side of center.” Gorton, they
said, had deserted his president on school prayer, abortion and a balanced
budget amendment. Goodloe’s candidacy was potentially much more
worrisome than Smith’s. 20
he seeMed so ReLAXed that many did a double take. With less geeky
glasses, an engaging grin and a heavy dose of contrition, Gorton made it
official in mid-April. The message was the same at every stop on the kickoff
tour: During “the unhappy days of 1986, I must confess I lost contact
with too many people in the State of Washington. I was not listening.
That will never happen again.” He never should have voted for aid to the
Contras, he said, or swapped his vote to get Dwyer confirmed. Above all,
he regretted voting to freeze the cost-of-living increases for Social Security
recipients. “I really wasn’t listening then.” He condemned the Reagan
Administration’s “current so-called policy of ‘benign neglect’” toward “a
larger and larger underclass of people who are at or near the minimum
wage.” It was shameful, Gorton said, for America to have so much “homelessness,
undertrained and under-educated young people.” He really
meant it. “Slade really went through a conversion,” said Eddie Mahe, who
signed on as a consultant to the campaign. 21
Gorton said he had developed his new “Evergreen Vision” by talking to
people from all walks of life all over the state for the past four months. He
promised “a fierce counterattack” in the war on drugs and advocated using
the military to interdict drug shipments because the kingpins were
growing bolder and more sophisticated by the day. He vowed to champion
better schools and universities, find innovative new ways to meet social
needs and promote a healthier economy. His version of “read my lips” was
a promise to oppose “any tax increases on working American men and
women.” In Everett—proposed home of the Navy base Lowry had de-