455 | A Power Struggle
T
contentious stMsthe o Andoff in the history of the Washing-
ton Legislature was all about power, literally and figuratively. For
Gorton, it was “marvelous OJT” in coalition-building and in due
course a game changer.
House Bill 197 was introduced by Olympia Republican Harry Lewis
and other supporters of private power early in the 1961 session. It man-
dated a vote of the people before a public utility district could acquire the
operating assets of an investor-owned utility. Gorton was the legal adviser
for the proponents of “Right-to-vote,” including the Evans crew and a col-
lection of conservative Democrats from private power districts. Notable
among the Democrats were William S. “Big Daddy” Day, a 6–3, 300–
pound chiropractor, and Margaret Hurley, who had “legs any chorus girl
would envy.” She could be as tough as she was pretty when you got her
Irish up.^1 Day and Hurley were from Spokane, home of Washington Water
Power.
Representative Bob Perry, another of the Democrats backing HB 197,
was a business agent for the Electrical Workers Union in Seattle. Gorton
and Pritchard quickly sized him up as a schemer. But he was hard not to
like. It would be revealed later that Perry was also on Washington Water
Power’s payroll. The PUD Association had a war chest of its own.
HB 197 “precipitated the last great battle in the public-private power
controversy that had been a major element in the politics of the state for
over 40 years.” Dan Evans said the bill “actually was nothing more sinis-
ter” than requiring a public vote before any county could shift from private
power to a PUD. But to Ken Billington, the veteran public power lobbyist, it
was “a very cleverly worded piece of legislation, having all the flag-waving
appeal of the right to vote.” Billington said the fine print revealed a “heads
I win, tails you lose” proposal that private power dearly loved.^2
Gorton, truth be told, had no abiding conviction that he was on the
right team on this one. In later years, in fact, he would be a staunch sup-
porter of public power. But it was his team, by God, “and Harry Lewis, a