64 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
Gorton says. “But Moos was there and he had one duty: He always had to
be in front of any camera when Dan was near Barry Goldwater because
the Rosellini people were desperate to get a picture of Goldwater embrac-
ing Dan. They never got it because Don kept it from happening.”
onoveB n MeR 3, 1964, with 140,000 votes to spare, Daniel J. Evans, 39,
became the youngest governor in Washington State history. He carried
all but five counties. More than 200,000 LBJ voters crossed over to Ev-
ans. Nationally, he was one of the few major-office Republican candidates
to dodge the landslide.
Having repelled the Birchers in the primary, Gorton handily won a
fourth term from King County’s 46th District. Another bright spot for the
DEGOHT was Lud Kramer’s victory. At 32, he became the youngest sec-
retary of state in Washington history and the first Republican to hold that
office since the coming of the New Deal in 1932.
Among the state’s four new Democratic congressmen—all Magnuson-
Jackson protégés—swept into office by the Democratic tsunami, two
would become major players in both Washingtons: 35–year-old Tom Foley,
a lanky lawyer from Spokane, and 37–year-old Brock Adams, a Seattle
lawyer with a boyish smile.
While Gorton and the rest of the Evans brain trust survived, together
with the six dissident Democrats who helped forge the 1963 coalition, the
Republicans lost nine seats in the House. The Democrats would now
have an impregnable 60–39 majority there, as well as a still solid 32–17
majority in the state Senate. When it came to redistricting, however, they
were still fractured by fear.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoonist Bob McCausland portrayed the new
governor as a noble knight astride a white charger. To joust with a hostile
Legislature, Evans had a powerful lance—the veto. As Gorton and Greive
girded to resume battle over boundaries, the federal court held the real
sword. It ordered the 1965 Legislature to enact a redistricting plan that
met the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark “one man, one vote” equal repre-
sentation mandate before it could take up any new legislation other than
housekeeping.^4
Howard McCurdy was ready. He had spent the summers between
sessions drawing lines in Mary Ellen McCaffree’s basement.
Greive tried a fast one.