50 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
O’Brien found out he was making hay on the side by selling services and
told him to knock it off. “He had a list of lobbyists who wanted copies of
bills, the daily calendar and other papers delivered to their rooms and he
charged them for it,” Snyder says. “O’Brien didn’t like it.”
It was the first time the Republicans had met with all six of the dissi-
dent Democrats. Gorton as usual cut to the chase, advancing Evans as the
coalition candidate for speaker. “Well, they didn’t want any part of that,”
Evans recalls with a chuckle. It had to be Day. Truth be told, Evans wasn’t
particularly excited to become speaker under contentious circumstances,
and in return for Day as speaker the Republicans would win major chair-
manships and achieve majorities on the important committees, includ-
ing Rules & Elections and Apportionment.
Gorton and Bob Perry, as different as cheese and chalk, had some
sort of weird intellectual chemistry going. Perry assured the other dis-
sident Democrats that Gorton would not allow the gerrymandering of
their districts.
It was not for nothing that Snyder called Holcomb “Sly Si.” The chief
clerk presides over the opening session until a speaker is elected. He was
part of the plot because the coalitionists knew they could count on him to
wield a mean gavel of his own. His job was riding on the outcome. “If this
whole thing failed,” Copeland said, “I don’t think John O’Brien would
have kept him around for one minute.”
The deal done, they shook on it and headed back into the night. Gov.
Rosellini would brand it an “unholy alliance.” It seemed like heaven to the
conspirators.^1
The press expected fireworks, not an ICBM. Everyone knew Evans and
the dissident Democrats were trying to craft an alliance to oust O’Brien.
Few believed they could actually pull it off. When the Democrats cau-
cused in December, O’Brien had 38 votes for speaker, Day nine and Kink
three. Perry was crowing on every corner that O’Brien would never get the
50 he needed. Evans, Gorton and Pritchard weren’t showing any of their
cards. Fearing leaks, they kept their own caucus in the dark for weeks.
Adele Ferguson, the only woman in the Capitol press corps, delighted
in scooping the guys. In a story that led The Bremerton Sun’s front page a
week before the Legislature convened, she said the game was afoot. The
O’Brien regulars assured her all the holdouts except Perry were back un-
der the tent, having been promised plum committee assignments. Balo-
ney, Perry told her. “O’Brien is as dead as last year’s garbage.” Day was
diplomatic. “There are going to be a lot of problems facing the Legislature
this time,” he said. “Redistricting; a deficit situation beyond belief. Tre-