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Octogenarian

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showfeAd LL across his cream of broccoli soup. It was lunch hour
one busy Tuesday in the spring of 2011 at Wagner’s Bakery &
Cafe, an Olympia institution just below the Capitol. He looked up
to see a pleasant-faced woman smiling down at him.
“Are you who I think you are?”
“That depends on who you think I am.”
“I think you’re Slade Gorton!”
“You’re right!”
“Well, I always liked to vote for you. We miss you.”
“Thank you!” he said, beaming. Turning back to his companions, he
joked, “If all the people who tell me that had actually voted I’d still be in
the Senate.”
At 83, Slade Gorton was remarkably content. Among the multiple irons
in his fire was the Redistricting Commission, charged with rearranging
the state’s political geography to create new legislative and congressional
districts. Another new mission was bringing China to heel on intellectual

The 2011 Washington

State Redistricting

Comission: from left, m

Tom Huff, Dean Foster,

Chairoman Lura J. w

Powell, Tim Ceis and

Gorton. Genevieve

O’Sullivan/Washington

State Redistricting

Commission