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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1892 | 5 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 7 |
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29 stories matching proxi
- The Shadowy Business of Proxy Voting
Local political observers call out the 'proxy convention' system for allowing unelected outsiders to hijack political representation.
- The Proxy Convention: Democrats Meet in Tacoma and Call It Harmony
A state Democratic committee gathering is dominated by proxies and federal officeholders, while leaders maneuver over fusion and legislative apportionment.
- The Political Ring’s Tight Grip on Chehalis County
Aberdeen’s Republican convention devolved into a 'cut and dried' affair as local party bosses utilized proxies and backroom maneuvering to maintain control.
- The Fusion Bargain: Democrats and Populists Trade Principles for a Ticket
A Tacoma dispatch describes backroom talks, proxies and newspaper maneuvering as Washington's Democrats and Populists weigh a joint slate.
- A Night of Political Pandemonium in Port Angeles
A local committee meeting descends into shouting, proxy-throwing, and rival factionalism as Clallam County Democrats split over patronage.
- The Railroad Men Had the Proxies. The Chamber’s Businessmen Had Had Enough.
A fight over a Chamber of Commerce nominating committee exposed how thoroughly Northern Pacific and T.R.P. men had captured Tacoma’s civic boosters—and how a reform faction decided to run its own ticket.
- The Delegate the Party Refused to Seat
When King County Democrats elected a Black delegate to their state convention, Southern-leaning party members staged a revolt to avoid sitting with him.
- Tacoma's Business Men Draw a Line at Railroad Control
Independent members of the Chamber of Commerce nominate a rival ticket after charging that Northern Pacific and Tacoma Railway & Power proxies packed the nominating committee.
- The Marriage of Convenience
A federal judge bypasses exclusion laws by upholding a traditional Chinese proxy marriage for an immigrant woman.
- The Great Jailhouse Swap
A bungling jailer manages to swap a suspected burglar with a drunk man, allowing the suspect to pay a fine and walk free while the wrong man sits behind bars.
- The Petty Feuds of Walla Walla's Elite
A satirical chronicle of the local political war between 'Ankeny' and 'Boxer' factions.
- The Political Grudge Match in Rosalia
A legislative seat is caught in a bitter proxy war after a list of locals is circulated to pressure a politician’s vote.
- The Price of Being a 'Wide Open' Town
Tacoma’s city officials are formalizing a system of monthly 'bail' payments for gambling house owners, effectively legalizing the industry through a protection racket.
- A Delegate, a Street Scuffle, and a Party at War With Itself
On Second Street, Lewis men rough up a Walla Walla delegate; at Sunday's caucus, Mayor Ronald and Junius Rochester trade barbs over the Lake Washington canal.
- The End of the Cattle Barons' Land Grab
Federal authorities tighten rules on soldiers' homestead claims to stop large cattle companies from using widows as proxies to secure public land.
- The Judge on Trial
A defendant accuses a Whitman County judge of coercion, bribery, and witness tampering in a desperate bid to clear his name.
- The State-Owned Railroad Dream
Prominent attorney and activist Colonel Patrick H. Winston argues that the state of Washington should own its own railroad to prevent corporate exploitation.
- The Real Fight at City Hall Was Never About the Nominee — It Was About the City Engineer
A routine appointment to the board of public works turned into a proxy war over R. H. Thomson, whose appointment a year earlier had ended Edwin Hall Warner's brief and bitter tenure as Seattle's city engineer.
- The Struggle for a Fair Count
A biting 1892 editorial captures the intense partisan fury over gerrymandering and the systematic suppression of voters, drawing parallels between the American South and New York’s political machines.
- Balloted Until Dawn: How Seattle Democrats Finally Picked a County Chairman
A King County Democratic committee deadlocks past 3 a.m., reconvenes, and crowns John Collins after midnight — then the losers promise the fight is far from over.
- The Tillicums' Trick: How a Political Machine Fooled Tacoma's Democrats
A secretive faction called the Tillicums manipulates primaries, places decoy tickets, and doles out patronage jobs to tighten its grip on Pierce County politics.
- Seattle and Tacoma Nearly Came to Blows Over the Ship Canal
At the 1892 Democratic state convention, King County's demand for a canal plank turned the floor into a shouting mob — and the vote flipped twice in a single night.
- The Shingle Men Try to Tame the Market
Manufacturers meet in Seattle to cap production, set 1894 prices, and bind every mill to the plan—with forfeits for anyone who breaks ranks.
- The Jailhouse Serenade: Seattle’s Most Popular Prisoner Refuses Bail
Val Wildman, proprietor of the 'Vanity Fair' lottery, sits in King County Jail refusing to pay his fine. When friends and influential citizens gather outside to raise the money for his release, he turns them away—insisting his imprisonment is a matter of principle.
- The Delegate Bunko: Party Math and a Patronage Promise
Seattle's Letter Writer Carson is accused of letting King County lose convention delegates, while Collector Saunders denies breaking a promise to a Seattle longshoremen's leader.