The Political Pudding of the Washington Legislature
How local party bosses in the late 1880s traded speakerships and senate seats in smoke-filled backrooms to secure personal power.
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 republican ringleaders are busy rattling up the political pie and apportioning it where they hope it will do the most good. Since the election, the bosses have been planning for some division of the spoils. In the whole, the handiwork of J.C. Haines is plainly visible. Mr. Haines has not forgotten the check his senatorial aspirations received at the republican territorial convention at Walla Walla. To accomplish his heart’s wish, he and his friends are open to any compromise or trade that will further his interest. The latest trade in the ring has just come to light: Colonel John W. Feighan of Spokane Falls is to be given the speakership of the legislature. Mr. Feighan is a skilled politician as well as a hard-headed lawyer. Colonel Feighan’s name was first proposed for the speakership by Judge Turner and Colonel W. N. Redpath, of Spokane, but of course nothing could be settled until Western Washington could be heard from. Haines and his clique would support the aspirations of Colonel Feighan for the speakership if in return the Spokane delegation would urge Mr. Haines’ claim to the senatorship. Thus the political pudding was mixed.
“Since the election, the bosses have been planning for some division of the spoils.”
Backroom deals and the horse-trading of political influence were the hallmark of territorial governance before Washington achieved statehood. Today, while the forums have moved from smoke-filled hotel rooms to digital PACs and social media influence, the core dynamic of transactional politics in the Pacific Northwest remains remarkably similar.
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