Port Angeles: Sen. Cantwell challenger McGavick visits

PORT ANGELES — Mike McGavick gave them his stump speech, so they gave him the stump.

About 100 people braved Thursday evening’s chilly breeze to hear McGavick, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, and GOP icon Slade Gorton address an outdoor rally at the Fairview Grange east of town.

The Clallam County Republican faithful gave McGavick an actual Douglas fir stump at the end of his talk and a question-and-answer session that together lasted about an hour.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

McGavick, who as a college student chauffeured Gorton during his 1980 campaign, said it was “a little bit disorienting” to trade places with his 78-year-old mentor.

“It makes it a little bit strange not to be working my tail off for him,” he said. McGavick also served as an aide in Gorton’s first term in the senate and as his 1988 campaign manager and subsequent chief of staff.

However, McGavick told Peninsula Daily News his views on Native American tribes were different from Gorton’s, which political observers say cost Gorton his senate seat in a whisker-close race with Maria Cantwell.

Now McGavick, who left government to become an insurance executive, most recently CEO of Safeco, aims to unseat Cantwell.

Gorton declined to say what advice he’d given McGavick about Washington’s tribes, deflecting the query to McGavick.

McGavick noted that Gorton’s anti-Indian reputation started with his tenure as Washington attorney general from 1969 to 1981, including arguing the state’s losing case against the tribes in front of U.S. District Judge George Boldt.

Boldt’s 1974 decision granted treaty tribes half the harvestable salmon in Washington waters.

“I don’t share that history,” said McGavick, whose father as a Washington legislator worked with tribal leaders. “I just hear those issues with a different ear.”

More in News

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a long string of beads at Squatchcon on Thursday at the Vern Burton Community Center gym in Port Angeles. Kevin VanDinter of Port Angeles was one of 60 vendors at the four day event, which continues through Sunday. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Squatchcon underway

Caro Tchannie and her daughter Lola Hatch, 9, of Tulallip try a… Continue reading

Capital budgets include Peninsula

Millions in state funds earmarked

Mike Chapman.
Chapman asks not to employ legislative privilege

State senator removes an exemption to Public Records Act

Port of Port Townsend considering Short’s Farm access

Commissioners aim to balance public, agricultural use

Jefferson library director to start new job May 19

Meet-and-greet event scheduled for May 22

Man taken to hospital after car hits tree

A man was transported to a hospital after a single-car… Continue reading

Bypass roads to be installed at two fish passage sites

Contractors will begin construction of one-lane bypass roads at two… Continue reading

Emily Matthiessen/Olympic Peninsula News Group
Stew Cockburn stands in the spring annual section prior to it being for early spring gardeners.
New Dungeness Nursery planted in landscaping industry

Family and their employees work 2-acre location in Sequim

Partnership discussion may violate state law

OMC in Phase 2 of exploratory process

Members of the public take a guided tour at Port Townsend High School on Wednesday. (Elijah Sussman/Peninsula Daily News)
Port Townsend school district may seek $90M bond

Tour highlights high school’s infrastructure needs

A pair of wind surfers take off from the breakwater at Port Townsend Marina in an apparent race across the bay on Tuesday. (Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News)
Catching the wind

A pair of wind surfers take off from the breakwater at Port… Continue reading