The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

10 | General Gorton
“Why don’t you Run for attorney general?” Mary Ellen suggested
in 1967. “What a great idea,” Gorton thought almost
the minute she said it. “I was spending so much time in the
Legislature that I wasn’t advancing in the private practice of law. I didn’t
really mind that so much, but I loved politics far, far more and the AG’s
office combined both.” The three-term incumbent, Democrat John J.
O’Connell, had already announced he would challenge Evans for governor. 1
After interviewing a number of hopefuls, a committee of two-dozen
Republican attorneys from around the state unanimously endorsed Gorton,
who had just turned 40. Evans gave Slade his enthusiastic blessings,
although he “would miss him sorely on the House floor and in the caucuses
where the big decisions are made,” the Seattle Argus said that January.
“Evans doesn’t lack for loyal adherents skilled in parliamentary tactics
in the Legislature, but few can match Gorton’s adroitness in coping
with the Democrats or his knowledge of state government.” The Democrats,
meantime, had “an almost embarrassing richness of candidates.” 2
John G. McCutcheon, a former Pierce County prosecutor and state
representative, was running hard, as were Marvin Durning, an environmental
activist, and Fred Dore, a veteran legislator. Durning and Gorton,
classmates at Dartmouth, were associates in the same Seattle law firm.
Another Democratic hat in the ring was that of Don Abel Jr. (“Elect an
Abel Attorney General”), the son of a former State Supreme Court justice.
Don Navoni, who headed the Consumer Protection Division for O’Connell,
made it a five-Democrat field.
Dore was regarded as the Democratic frontrunner. McCutcheon, however,
enjoyed name familiarity. His father, state Senator John T. McCutcheon,
had served in the Legislature off and on since 1941. He had a solid
base of support from an energetic party apparatus in the state’s secondlargest
county, though he’d lost a bid for re-election as prosecutor two
years earlier to an energetic young Republican, Ronald Hendry.
Gorton’s only Republican opponent in the 1968 primary was Robert G.
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