Political Backroom Deals in King County
The local press accuses power brokers of attempting to manipulate the Republican county convention to oust a sitting U.S. Senator.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The political manipulators, who, at the bidding of Nelson Bennett, H. W. Fairweather and Miles C. Moore, undertook to organize an opposition to Senator Allen in King county, are complaining bitterly because they have been driven from cover. They hoped that by making combinations with every candidate for every local office they could into the county convention a large enough number of delegates to nominate legislative candidates who would oppose Allen at their bidding. This has been Harry White’s scheme from the beginning. When a senator of the United States who has served the state faithfully is assailed because he has acted with common fairness toward King county, it is the duty of a Seattle paper to speak out.
“They must always count the chances of defeat when they attempt to carry out an anti-Seattle scheme with the help of Seattle voters.”
This reflects the fierce, often personal, nature of late 19th-century regional politics, where Seattle's growth was frequently leveraged against the interests of other Puget Sound cities like Tacoma. The power dynamics between local party bosses and state representatives remain a familiar, if evolved, aspect of local governance.
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