the counciL of tRent 307
Murray, up for re-election, tiptoed. However, she said she knew at least
two things for sure: Holding the Elwha dams hostage was the worst sort
of political power play and “we are going down a long line toward not sav-
ing any fish. We have to make some decisions that turn that around. We
cannot bury our head in the sand on this one.”^8
onBth o coMMeRce And AppRopRiAtions, Gorton was at odds once
again with his old adversary, Senator Ted Stevens, who fought like a
grizzly to maintain Alaska’s dominance in the North Pacific fishery
against some of the Seattle-based factory trawlers. Gorton was also
pushing for individual quotas in the pollock fishery. One of many
heated hearings was held in Seattle in 1995. On hand was Jeanne Bum-
pus, a young lawyer Gorton and Tony Williams had just hired to serve
as Slade’s legislative counsel on the committee. “If she had known the
issue was going to be so messy, I’m guessing she might have turned us
down,” Williams says.
Bumpus, now with the Federal Trade Commission, admits she left the
hearing a bit dazed. As if differences with Stevens were not challenge
enough, there were tremendous conflicts among the Washington State
interests. When she got to Capitol Hill, she grasped the enormous power
Stevens wielded as Appropriations Committee chairman. “One time I’d
been up for days on end. I came back to the office and burst into tears
when I got back to my cubicle. Slade put his arm around me and listened
to me sniffle. It was very sweet.”
Stevens seized on the fact that a lot of the Seattle-based processing fleet
was foreign-owned. In fact, some of the vessels were foreign built, he thun-
dered. “So there was a large amount of jingoism,” Bumpus says. But in
fairness to Stevens, he was intent upon defending his constituents—
including smaller, Alaska-based catcher boats and tribal interests—as
resourcefully as Gorton. “One of Slade’s key principles was that the little
guys weren’t going to get run over, which was no small goal since the
Seattle interests were hugely divided in the beginning.” One hearing
erupted in fisticuffs.
For a while it looked as if Stevens would prevail. In 1998, however,
Gorton worked with the Alaskan to broker a deal that balanced the inter-
ests of the myriad players, large and small, including the Seattle-based
fishing fleet and factory trawlers. “Ted still held all the high cards,” Gor-
ton says, “but the ace of trumps was my friendship with Trent,” who was
now the majority leader. Lott informed Stevens that his amendment was
going nowhere until he reached a compromise with Gorton. “After all