geneRAL goRton 93
expedited payment of judgments in small-claims court. Gorton was active
in organizations to improve the training of police and corrections officers.
Law enforcement became one of his strongest supporters over the years.
The attorney general represents all state agencies and officials—not
just the governor, as many believe. (The governor’s own counsel has a
nominal assignment as a special assistant attorney general.) An autono-
mous office-holder, the attorney general’s duty is to protect the public in-
terest by upholding state law. The public interest, naturally, is open to
interpretation. Even Gorton and Evans had their differences.*
“A huge amount of the work is just seeing to it that other people’s poli-
cies are appropriately represented,” Gorton says. He loved delving into
the legal aspects of a case.
Phil Austin was in charge of legal opinions for the office. Once they
were drafted Gorton would test the logic, examine the precedents and
tinker with the wording. He’d call in the office’s best lawyers and engage
them in freewheeling debates. The pay wasn’t competitive with private
practice—even for Gorton, who was getting $23,000 per year—but it was
one of the most stimulating law offices in the nation.
wonoAs g Rt As geARing up to run for a second term as attorney general in
1972, the big guessing game was whether Evans would seek a third term as
governor—and if he didn’t would Gorton go for it? A poll found Senator
- In 2010, Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Gorton protégé, and Governor Chris Gre-
goire, McKenna’s immediate predecessor as AG, found themselves at odds over the consti-
tutionality of the Obama health-care reform package.
Slade and Sally with
President Nixon in 1969.
Happier days were not
ahead. Slade was one of
the first major Republi-
can office-holders to call
for Nixon’s resignation
in the wake of Watergate.
Gorton Family Album