96

11 | Unhappy Days

E

Xdingconfidence, u Gorton announced his candidacy for re-elec-

tion at the Olympic Hotel, a downtown Seattle landmark, in the

summer of 1972. The number of citizen complaints being resolved

by the Consumer Protection Division had tripled on his watch. His team

had taken down shady car dealers and exposed pyramid schemes, Gorton

boasted, punctuating each achievement with an index finger and a flip-

chart. Now they were working to reduce motor-vehicle air pollution and

preserve public access to the ocean beaches. Federal grants to local police

were being expedited. If re-elected, he promised “robust” additional ini-

tiatives to protect the public, including more scrutiny of mail-order mer-

chandising, which was gaining in popularity.^1

It was the calm before a swarm of political tornadoes. Gorton and Ev-

ans were about to be immersed in a campaign season that at this writing

is rivaled for bitterness only by the 2004 Gregoire-Rossi race for governor.

They emerged with decisive victories that were clouded by scandal. Nearly

40 years later, Gorton related his side of the story with uncharacteristic

sadness. When he was done, he leaned back in his chair and stared at the

ceiling. Finally, his voice sinking an octave, he said, “I think that was the

most unhappy period in my life.”

Fred Dore was already off and running for attorney general in his

slam-bang style, handing reporters a sheaf of Xeroxed press clippings and

thank-you letters praising him as a fearless populist. In 1970, for reasons

never discerned, someone lobbed a stick of dynamite onto the roof of

Dore’s home on the periphery of a predominantly black Seattle neighbor-

hood. His wife Mary and four of their five children were at home but no

one was injured. Dore’s detractors, even some friends, used to josh that

he probably put someone up to it. Fred just laughed. He was as feisty as

they come. When he was 4, he came down with polio. Two years later he

lost his father. His mother told him he could still become president of the

United States if he worked hard enough.

In temperament and style, Gorton and Dore were as different as any