The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

74 slade gorton: a half century in politics
fine. Gorton was confident that if it came to that the outcome would be
more swing districts. Greive groused that the attorney general’s opinions
were smokescreens for stalling.
A bow-tied bundle of kinetic energy, Greive came bounding into the
senatorial cafe around 10 one night during the 1971 session. He plopped
down next to George W. Scott, a young Republican from Seattle, and inhaled
a bowl of cream of tomato soup as they talked, “his spoon moving
in a tight oval.” Then, as abruptly as he had arrived, Greive stood, turned
on his heel and galloped back to his maps, taking the stairs two at a time.
“His dinner had taken three minutes,” Scott recalled. 12
When the labor lobby entered the fray with an initiative, “the exasperated
court appointed demographer Richard Morrill, a Democrat and
Gorton’s first choice as ‘master’ to redraw lines for its approval.” Greive
was outmaneuvered again. “With the court’s imprimatur, Gorton and the
Republicans—as intended—did better than they could by compromise.” 13
In 1983, voters established the Washington State Redistricting Commission
to ensure district boundaries are redrawn through a bipartisan
process.