The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

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duced himself to Gorton. “It’s wonderful to have you young people here,”
he said, “and you’ll do very, very well in this body as long as you do exactly
what I tell you,” which wasn’t what the young people had in mind.
Johnston invited Gorton and Pritchard to his imposing Spokane home
for more mentoring. “Now boys, if you’ve got to have something for your
district, I can work with (Speaker) John O’Brien,” he counseled. “We get
along and we can work things out.” Pritchard smiled. “Elmer, Slade and I
didn’t come down here to work things out and to get along with John
O’Brien. We came down to make some changes.” If there was anything in
their districts that they needed “we’ll work it,” Pritchard assured him.
“That’s the way we’re going to play the game.” Johnston smiled, shook his
head and said, “Well, OK, boys . . .”
Evans was soundly whipped in his bid for leadership. Youth must be
served, just not that year. The upstarts didn’t waste time licking their
wounds. They regrouped and emerged even more determined.
For the 1959 session, Moriarty and Pritchard rented a house just up the
street from the Capitol. There was room for four. Evans, not yet married,
made it a threesome. Who else could they get? “How about Gorton?”
Pritchard piped up.
Sally Gorton, great with their first child, Thomas Slade Gorton IV,
became the den mother. “I was treated like the queen bee,” she recalls. “I
never had to lift a finger. They had wisely arranged for a cleaning lady.
Slade and I had the master bedroom and the other guys were upstairs. We
went out to dinner practically every night and they talked politics. They
were so young; so full of energy to change things. I’ll never forget something
I heard Joel say: ‘You can get a lot done if you don’t worry who’s
getting the credit.’ It was a wonderful time.”
State Reps. Joel Pritchard, Dan Evans, Chuck Moriarty, Jim Andersen and Slade
Gorton in 1959. The future held the governor’s office, the U.S. House and Senate
and the State Supreme Court. Moriarty was the only political dropout. Washington
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