The Political Toboggan: Tacoma's Revolt Against a Carpetbagger Candidate
As the state legislature prepared to convene in 1891, prominent Tacoma Republicans publicly abandoned their own local candidate, labeling him an opportunist from Indiana.
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 Calkins boomers are very blue this evening. All day long members of the legislature have been arriving, and the great number of Squire men has startled Calkins' friends. It is reported this evening that Calkins may be dropped and another Pierce County man substituted. This comes from a good source and is the result of the recent outbreak among well-known and influential Pierce Republicans. While all are willing to work very hard for Tacoma and Pierce County, many have begun to realize that Calkins cannot be elected, and they want to bring out another Pierce man before it is too late. One of the most prominent Republicans in the state, an ex-sheriff of Pierce, has left the Calkins aggregation and boldly announces that the traveling man from Indiana cannot be elected. 'I'm for Pierce County,' said the ex-official, 'but after a careful survey of the ground I find we cannot win with Calkins. He will snow the county under... These representatives know that if Calkins should win, he would have to consult with the railroad corporations before he could vote. They realize his hands would be tied so firmly he could be of little benefit to the state, much less to the Republican party.' An eminent ex-member of the legislature, sometimes called the Sage of the Sound, said tonight that a very strong argument against Calkins is that if he were to carry off the prize, every broken-down politician in Indiana would be out here before spring, chasing other plums. This, coming from one who actually controls a number of votes, certainly emphasizes the fact that the Calkins boom is on the toboggan slide.
“These representatives know that if Calkins should win he would have to consult with the railroad corporations before he could vote.”
This 1891 political squabble reflects a perennial tension in Washington politics: the suspicion of 'carpetbagging' and the fear that candidates are beholden to powerful corporate interests (then, the railroads) rather than local voters. Even over a century later, the anxiety that a candidate is merely an opportunistic outsider using the state as a stepping stone remains a potent narrative in local elections.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.