the coMeBAcK 247
the story they conducted a thorough search for corrections or clarifica-
tions. Finding none, they aired the ad because they said it was such an
important issue. After Lowry’s people went ballistic, the Gorton cam-
paign found Smith in California. He “stands by the story,” they said.
“He’s prepared to sign an affidavit.” However, when the UW Daily inter-
viewed Kelly Smith, he said Lowry spoke against prohibition of alcohol
“but he never came out and said, ‘I support legalizing marijuana.’” Smith
told The Seattle Times the same thing, but admitted his memory of the
1979 meeting was “pretty shaky.” Smith doubtless was being pressured
by Democrats to support Lowry’s version of the story, the Gorton cam-
paign said.^38
Reporters asked him to explain how Lowry’s comments got screwed
up. “Maybe it was the copy editor.” Who was that? “Sharon Kanareff,” now
none other than Gorton’s press secretary. Kanareff pleaded innocent to
any creative copy editing. Conspiracy theorists had a field day and the
press began mumbling about “the same old Slade.”^39
dsvAn eAn wAs disgusted by the marijuana ad, but he kept silent for
the time being. Others decried the Republican “demagoguery” of por-
traying Democrats as soft on crime, a theme the Bush campaign was
using to great effect against the Democratic presidential nominee, Mi-
chael Dukakis. The hapless Massachusetts governor had supported “re-
habilitative” weekend passes for hardened criminals. Willie Horton, a
murderer who committed a rape on his days off, became a household
name in 1988, thanks to the masterful mischief of Lee Atwater, Bush’s
campaign manager.^40
The marijuana ad backfired, Lowry maintained, “because it reminded
people of why they originally voted Gorton out of office. The new Slade
Gorton is as untruthful as the old Slade Gorton.” On the contrary, Mc-
Gavick said, the ad halted a slide in Gorton’s poll numbers and italicized
the notion that Lowry was too liberal to represent anyone but Seattle. An-
other Gorton ad, in fact, said Lowry was “a liberal even Seattle can’t af-
ford.” Images of the Ayatollah Khomeini and Libyan dictator Muammar
Gaddafi flashed on the screen to highlight Lowry’s votes against an Iran
trade embargo and criticism of U.S. bombing raids on Libya. “I will be a
senator for all the people of the state,” Gorton promised.^41
David Stern, who produced upbeat ads for Gorton earlier in the cam-
paign, said after the election that he had no role in the negative ads that
dominated the closing weeks. The designer of the yellow Happy Face that
achieved ubiquity in the late 1960s, Stern was unhappy that candidates