The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

6 | The Coalition
It wAs sundAy, JAn. 13, 1963, the day before the 38 th session of the
Washington State Legislature. The Republican members of the House
and their spouses were enjoying a get-together at the Governor Hotel
in downtown Olympia. As the party wound down, Dan Evans sidled up to
Gorton, Don Eldridge and Tom Copeland, three members of his leadership
team. He told them to meet him in the parking lot of the Elks Club
in a few minutes and they’d go for a ride.
A chilly drizzle slickened the road as Evans headed through west
Olympia and turned north onto Cooper Point Road, which winds through
a narrow peninsula that pokes into Puget Sound. “We were looking over
our shoulders to see if anyone was following us,” Gorton says.
They turned onto a long dirt road flanked by towering old-growth evergreens.
It led to a clearing and a small house. Light from a fireplace flickered
through the windows. Otherwise, the place was as dark as the moonless
night. To Evans, it felt like a B movie.
Evans knocked on the door. Bill Day, a moose of a man, welcomed
them with a conspiratorial grin. The chiropractor from Spokane had
rented the place for the session. Sitting around the fire were Bob Perry,
Maggie Hurley, Dick Kink, Chet King and Bill McCormick. In a lifetime
of politics, they were “six of the toughest Democrats” Evans ever bargained
with. Si Holcomb, chief clerk of the House every session but one
since 1935, was there too, together with his assistant, Sid Snyder, who got
along with everyone. Holcomb’s eyesight was poor, so Snyder suspected
nothing unusual when asked to drive him to a meeting with Day. “Everyone
had heard all the talk about a coalition,” Snyder says, “but I thought
we were just going to talk about the opening day agenda. I’m not sure
they actually wanted me there, but there I was.”
There was no love lost between Snyder’s boss and the speaker of the
House. “Si had chafed under John O’Brien’s rather abrupt and abrasive
style,” Evans says. “It was one of those cases where human relationships
played a very big role.” Holcomb was also sore at the speaker because
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