The Political Gamble of the Century
How King County forced the hand of the state Republican convention to secure John H. McGraw as their gubernatorial pick.
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.
John H. McGraw, nominated by the Republicans of Washington for governor, was and is King county's candidate. Those who know the 'inside facts' relating to his nomination fully realize that no individual or factional interest was a prime mover in making him the unanimous choice of the King county delegation. He was their spontaneous selection. The Press-Times declares that Mr. McGraw did not know he was to be nominated; some of those nearest to him were strenuously opposed to his nomination, attempting to draw him out of the field as late as yesterday noon. But the King county delegation would not listen; they insisted that he must be the candidate. He was the logical representative of the King county spirit, chosen when a bold stroke for fortune had to be made after the convention refused to endorse the Lake Washington canal. His nomination brought conflicting factions into harmony, representing the ambition of King County to prove it is deficient in neither men nor energy.
“He represents the ambition of King county... no trifler, no self seeker, no mere wire-puller, but a man's man, heart of oak, nerves of steel, will of iron.”
This reflects the long-standing tension between Seattle's outsized regional power and the rest of Washington State. John H. McGraw’s rise highlights the era's 'machine politics'—where the fate of the city's infrastructure, like the Lake Washington Ship Canal, was directly tied to electoral horse-trading.
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