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3 | The Change Agents

“H

eRA wAs A B nd-new guy in our town,” Joel Pritchard recalled

40 years later, and two things were immediately clear: “Slade

Gorton was super smart and he loved politics.” He couldn’t have

fallen in with better companions. The Pritchard brothers seemed to know

everyone who was anyone.^1

Organizational wizards, Joel and Frank had matching jaunty grins.

They’d been Seattle’s leading young Republicans for several years when

Gorton put on his civvies, joined a small law firm and went doorbelling

or debating most every night. When Slade and Joel discovered they’d both

been inspired as teenagers by hearing Walter Judd talk about public ser-

vice they figured their friendship was foreordained.^2

The Pritchard brothers grew up in an intellectually feisty family. Father

was a GOP precinct committeeman but pro-Roosevelt in 1940 as the U.S.

edged ever closer to joining the war. Mother voted for Willkie, a former

Democrat. In any case, by 1952 they all liked Ike—and Governor Arthur

Langlie. A paragon of rectitude, Langlie was on Eisenhower’s short list of

possible running mates.^3

The 1956 primary election campaign was in full swing when Slade

joined the party. The Republicans had their work cut out. Langlie was

challenging U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson. Don Eastvold was running

for governor. After a controversial term as attorney general, Eastvold now

found himself in a surprisingly tight primary battle with Emmett Ander-

son, the lieutenant governor. A decent fellow, Anderson unfortunately

had all the charisma of an Elks Club exalted ruler, which he was. East-

vold, however, was a heavy drinker and womanizer, which offended Lan-

glie, the Pritchards and their new friend, Gorton.

Denounced by Langlie, Eastvold lost in the primary to Anderson, who

went down to defeat in November at the hands of State Senator Al

Rosellini, the first Italian Catholic governor west of the Mississippi. Mag-

nuson, meantime, crushed Langlie in a no-holds-barred contest one