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6 | The Coalition

I

tund wAs s Ay, JAn. 13, 1963, the day before the 38th session of the

Washington State Legislature. The Republican members of the House

and their spouses were enjoying a get-together at the Governor Hotel

in downtown Olympia. As the party wound down, Dan Evans sidled up to

Gorton, Don Eldridge and Tom Copeland, three members of his leader-

ship team. He told them to meet him in the parking lot of the Elks Club

in a few minutes and they’d go for a ride.

A chilly drizzle slickened the road as Evans headed through west

Olympia and turned north onto Cooper Point Road, which winds through

a narrow peninsula that pokes into Puget Sound. “We were looking over

our shoulders to see if anyone was following us,” Gorton says.

They turned onto a long dirt road flanked by towering old-growth ever-

greens. It led to a clearing and a small house. Light from a fireplace flick-

ered through the windows. Otherwise, the place was as dark as the moon-

less night. To Evans, it felt like a B movie.

Evans knocked on the door. Bill Day, a moose of a man, welcomed

them with a conspiratorial grin. The chiropractor from Spokane had

rented the place for the session. Sitting around the fire were Bob Perry,

Maggie Hurley, Dick Kink, Chet King and Bill McCormick. In a lifetime

of politics, they were “six of the toughest Democrats” Evans ever bar-

gained with. Si Holcomb, chief clerk of the House every session but one

since 1935, was there too, together with his assistant, Sid Snyder, who got

along with everyone. Holcomb’s eyesight was poor, so Snyder suspected

nothing unusual when asked to drive him to a meeting with Day. “Every-

one had heard all the talk about a coalition,” Snyder says, “but I thought

we were just going to talk about the opening day agenda. I’m not sure

they actually wanted me there, but there I was.”

There was no love lost between Snyder’s boss and the speaker of the

House. “Si had chafed under John O’Brien’s rather abrupt and abrasive

style,” Evans says. “It was one of those cases where human relationships

played a very big role.” Holcomb was also sore at the speaker because