Democratic Party Caucus Descends into Backroom Chaos
While Washington legislators bicker behind locked doors in Olympia, party infighting stalls the state’s business.
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At the Olympia Hotel, the Democratic caucus met behind bolted doors and drawn curtains to nominate a candidate for the U.S. Senate. After three ballots, the party settled on Chauncey W. Griggs of Tacoma, though the lack of unity was palpable. Representative Steve Judson, acting as caucus chair, scoffed at the Wallace faction—a rival wing of the party—calling them 'infants in politics' who might know how to run a roulette table but lacked the political mettle to govern. Despite the nomination, disgust remains among those who favored other candidates. Meanwhile, the state legislature struggles to remain productive; without committees formed, little legislative progress is possible, and the House has been forced to adjourn early for lack of work.
“Steve talked picturesquely of the Wallace wing after the caucus, and declared that some of them might know how to run a roulette table and a 'Heads I win, tails you lose' game, but they were infants in politics.”
The spectacle of Olympia hotel rooms doubling as smoke-filled caucus halls for power-broking is a tradition that continues to shape Washington politics. The modern state legislature still deals with the friction of party unity versus independent local interests, much like the 1893 struggle between the Seattle and Tacoma wings of the Democratic Party.
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