Defeated King County Clerk Refuses to Step Down
A political standoff ensues at the King County Courthouse after the incumbent clerk refuses to vacate his office for his successor.
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 action of Mr. W. B. Spencer in refusing to turn over the office to his duly elected and qualified successor, Thomas W. Gordon, is inexplicable upon any other basis than that he believes he has an absolute and indefeasible right to the office. This has practically been Mr. Spencer's attitude ever since he was defeated for renomination in the Republican convention by Mr. Gordon. After the people of King County had declared by their votes that they wanted Mr. Gordon for county clerk, Mr. Spencer made the claim that he had a right to hold the office until March. Since the decision of the supreme court in the McMurry-Hollis case, he has shifted his position and adopted the proposition that there was no vacancy in his office which could be filled by an election last November. Mr. Gordon has been duly elected county clerk of King County, and Mr. Spencer's evident attempt to annoy the man who defeated him in the convention will doubtless receive the rebuke it merits at the hands of the courts.
“The action of Mr. W. B. Spencer in refusing to turn over the office to his duly elected and qualified successor is inexplicable.”
This 1893 dispute highlights the intense stakes of local county office in the territorial and early statehood eras, where political positions were often viewed as personal fiefdoms rather than administrative roles. Today, while transitions are bureaucratic, the friction between 'incumbent rights' and 'voter will' remains a core tension in American civic life.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.