368 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
lief,” asserting that Republicans didn’t make a fuss over errors in other
counties that might have helped Rossi.^11
MgMiKe c AvicK’s Bid for the U.S. Senate in 2006 began with high hopes.
As CEO of Safeco, Seattle’s home-grown insurance industry giant, Gor-
ton’s former chief of staff had engineered a hugely successful restructur-
ing. Along the way, however, 1,200 jobs were jettisoned. McGavick de-
parted with rewards worth $28.4 million.^12
Maria Cantwell was perceived early on as vulnerable. McGavick had
demonstrated he was an astute campaign manager. But could he run his
own? Gorton wasn’t worried about that. His antennae told him it was a
bad year for Republicans. Polls found 60 percent disapproved of the war
in Iraq, which had turned up no signs of the ballyhooed weapons of mass
destruction. Further, the administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina
disaster relief was a huge snafu, and the GOP-controlled Congress had
been wracked by scandals.^13
McGavick didn’t ask Gorton whether he should run. “He told me he
was thinking about it, and he told me when he decided he definitely was
doing it. I supported him wholeheartedly, of course, but I believed it was
an impossible task.”
Gorton campaigned energetically, hopping aboard McGavick’s RV for
stops from Port Angeles to Pullman. He introduced his prize protégé at
rallies and joined him for editorial board interviews. McGavick’s themes
were civility and real-world administrative moxie. He made a preemptive
confession to a DUI arrest in 1993 and apologized for the marijuana-bait-
ing ad he’d run against Mike Lowry in Slade’s 1988 campaign. Some
called it “refreshing candor,” others “manipulative.”^14
The campaign’s eponymous, exclamatory signage—MIKE!—was ap-
propriated for a news release claiming there was “Mike!Mentum.” In re-
ality, McGavick was getting little traction against the cool, competent
Cantwell. She had won admiring reviews for standing up to Ted Stevens
over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and oil tanker traffic
on Puget Sound. McGavick chided her for voting to authorize the use of
force in Iraq in 2002—her most vulnerable spot—and distanced himself
from Bush, saying the president ought to fire Donald Rumsfeld and do
something decisive. “Partition the country if we have to and get our troops
home in victory.”^15
Down 16 points, McGavick asked Gorton to fly to Spokane with him
for his last big rally. “I am very critical of people’s speaking ability,” Gor-
ton admits, “but I could not have corrected a comma in what Mike said