The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

326 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
“No, no. You don’t understand: You’re going to run my campaign.”
“No, no, no. You don’t understand. I’m not going to run your campaign.
I’m too old to be running campaigns. That’s not my deal any more.
I’m leaving for Mexico.”
Two weeks later when Dotzauer returned from vacation, Cantwell
was waiting. “You don’t understand,” she said. “I’m going to do this,
and you’re going to do this. We’re going to do this.” Then she pulled out
the last stop. Their fathers had died of cancer. “You know, my dad would
want this and your dad would want this.” He sighed. “What the hell?
OK. I’ll do it.”
“I guess I wanted to see if I still had it in me to run a race.”
One of the most successful political operatives in Washington State
history, Dotzauer won his spurs managing Scoop Jackson’s 1982 reelection
campaign. In 1984 he was the architect of the “Booth Who?”
campaign that propelled the relatively unknown Booth Gardner from
Pierce County executive to governor. Afterward, he formed a public affairs
firm, with Cantwell as his first employee, and soon attracted a
stable of clients. 5
senn hAd Been on the stuMp for 10 months when Cantwell made it official
on January 19, 2000. “It’s something she’s got to do,” said Cathy
Allen, a Democratic political consultant. She compared Cantwell to a
bungee jumper with a phobia for heights: “She can’t live with that last
loss. This is her confronting and overcoming her greatest fears.” 6
Cantwell had never run statewide. Senn had. The insurance commissioner
also boasted a number of union endorsements. It had taken Senn
nearly a year, however, to raise $800,000. Cantwell had ready access to
five times that. Besides Dotzauer, her brain trust included former House
speaker Joe King and Christian Sinderman, an experienced political operative.
King and Cantwell had worked together closely during her six
years as a state legislator, focusing on health-care, economic development
and growth management. 7
A woman had never defeated an incumbent elected U.S. senator. One
of the women dedicated to making sure Gorton was not the first was the
indefatigable Veda Jellen, his state director. A huge personality, Jellen had
emerged from the PTA and Campfire Girls to become one of the most
influential women in the Washington State Republican Party. She was a
past master of grass-roots organizing, phone banks and direct-mail. Gorton
was in awe of her moxie. “You ignored her advice at your peril.” 8
Given Slade’s perennially high negatives, they took nothing for granted.