Messy And unpRedictABLe 293
theMAte s RstRoKe of gingRich’s cAMpAign to reclaim Congress was
unveiled on the steps of the Capitol six weeks before the midterm elec-
tions. The would-be speaker assembled some 300 Republican congress-
men and hopefuls to sign a Reaganesque “Contract with America.” An
unaccountable bloated bureaucracy was usurping personal responsibility
and thwarting free enterprise, Gingrich declared. The contract called for
a balanced budget amendment, lower taxes, tort reform, term limits,
strengthened national security, tougher welfare rules and reduced gov-
ernment spending. Give us a majority, Gingrich declared, and we’ll keep
the faith by bringing these issues to the floor within the first 100 days. “If
we break this contract, throw us out. We mean it.”^21
Gingrich invited Republican senators to join his insurgents on the
steps. Lott and Gramm told Dole it was a terrific idea, but the minority
leader balked. Dole detested Gingrich. He and the other old bulls saw the
Contract as foolish grandstanding. On Election Day, though, they were
delighted to be beneficiaries of its coattails. The Republican resurgence
made Dole the frontrunner for the 1996 GOP presidential nomination
and paved the way for Lott’s elevation to whip, with Gorton as one of his
deputies.^22
goononRt w A thiRd teRM resoundingly, for a change, capturing just
shy of 56 percent of the vote. He carried 35 of the state’s 39 counties, in-
cluding, with great satisfaction, Grays Harbor, a Democratic stronghold
since the coming of the New Deal. He lost King County by only 22,600
votes out of a half-million cast. The wave of exasperation that cost the
Democrats control of Congress swept away five Washington State Dem-
ocrats, including Maria Cantwell, Mike Kreidler, Jolene Unsoeld and
Jay Inslee. But the biggest Republican scalp of all nationwide was Tom
Foley’s. George Nethercutt, a little-known Spokane lawyer, ousted the speaker
of the House.
Republicans now had seven of the state’s nine seats in Congress. Norm
Dicks and Jim McDermott were the lone survivors. Gingrich wasn’t whis-
tling past Dixie when he called Washington State “ground zero of the
Republican revolution.” As usual, the war in Washington was composed
of strategic battles to win independents. Although the state’s delegation
went from 8-1 Democratic to 7-2 GOP, the total Republican vote for con-
gressional seats exceeded the total Democratic vote by only 15,000 state-
wide, Stu Elway noted.^23
For Cantwell, defeat was a great career move. She landed a job as vice
president of marketing for a Seattle Internet start-up that became Real-