the coMeBAcK 251
over the final weekend.
McGavick predicted they’d
win “by an eke.” On No-
vember 8, 1988, Washing-
ton’s habitual ticket-split-
ters returned Gorton to
the U.S. Senate by 40,000
votes out of 1.85 million
cast, 51.09 percent. They
favored Dukakis over
Bush—an easy winner
nationally—by about the
same margin. McGavick’s
strategy worked flawlessly.
To offset Lowry’s 50,000-
vote margin in King Coun-
ty, Gorton carried 27 of the
state’s 39 counties, rolling
up nearly a 32,000-vote
margin in the Tri- Cities,
home to 12,000 Hanford
workers. Gorton posted a
14,000-vote victory in Ya-
kima and decisively won
the war in the “defense”
counties: Kitsap, home to
the Bremerton Navy Yard
and the Bangor sub base;
Snohomish, hoping for a
home port, and Pierce,
home to Fort Lewis and
McChord Air Force Base.
For good measure, Gorton
also carried Clark, Bonk-
er’s home base. With Rita-
jean Butterworth as field
director, McGavick had es-
tablished an energetic, well-
funded campaign organization in every county, big or small. And for play-
ing hardball he had no apologies. “We were helped by it. Absolutely.”^52
The famous Dan Evans “Hip Boots” TV com -
mercial from the 1988 Gorton-Lowry cam-
paign. Ian Stenseng/Washington Secretary
of State