Historic Quote: “A nuclear-power plant is infinitely safer than eating because 300 people choke to death on food every year.” Dixy Lee Ray in one of her many “Dixyisms.’
There was once a frank, female Governor from the northwest who surprised pundits by winning her primary, antagonized the senior Senator and powerful Appropriator of her party, who often quarreled with the Legislature, women, and environmentalists and who generated unflattering headlines. Think you know who I’m referring to. Before Sara Palin, guess again. It is Dixy Lee Ray, the first female Governor of Washington State.
If Ray’s predecessor, Daniel Evans, knew how to bring people together, she was a polar opposite. A case in point is her core mission in life: atomic energy. She had little tolerance for those who opposed it and of it’s risks, would say, “there is no evidence that survivors of the Hiroshima bombings have suffered any more cancer than anyone else, including the second generation. The problems facing the nuclear industry are largely raised by fears of the public, but we all know that fear requires ignorance.”
Ray was a Democrat, but had no party affiliation until deciding to run for Governor.”And were she alive today, she’d almost certainly be aligned with the GOP.
Unlike Palin, what was most notable about Ray’s success at attaining the Governorship was that, at the start of 1976, she was not on anyone’s radar screen as a candidate. In fact, no one knew who she was. No one!
Dixy Lee Ray (Historylink.org)
Ray had sat on the Atomic Energy Commission, an appointment made by a Republican, Richard Nixon because, it was said, he needed to give more posts to women. For her background was not in science. It was in marine biology. Nonetheless, she traveled to the other Washington with her camper (where she’d reside), and her dogs, a poodle and a 100 pound Scottish deerhound. She’d return that same way in March 1976 when she announced her bid for Governor.
The dogs defined Ray. They were everywhere,; her personal office, official meetings, social events, hanging out of her Jaguar window, even, as the Seattle Times noted on her death, at the “posh Ranier Club.”
Ex-GOP House Speaker Duane Berentson would quip that “in Dixy’s eyes, the dogs were certainly at least as important as us.” State Senator Hubert Donohue added he “always felt if the dogs didn’t growl at me, I was doing okay.” One day, a legislator accidentally sat on the dog. He would soon realize the gravity of his error. Ray would locate a maximum-security prison in that man’s district.
Another thing that defined Ray was her gender. Or not promoting it. By the time she became Chair of the Atomic Energy Committee, she insisted on being called the Chair “man.” She explained “I’m fully aware that there is nothing more dangerous to life, at the moment, than the destructiveness I have knowledge of. But my burden and responsibility doesn’t lose me a night’s sleep. It’s a myth of modern society that women are clinging vines.”
And as Governor, she did little to promote the ERA. In fact, she’d sign a bill sun-setting the Washington State Women’s Council. She once said “stop brooding about being a woman. If you want to do something, then train yourself and you’ve got to be willing to work.”
Once Governor, Ray’s sister, who was also her secretary as hostess at state functions, convinced her to shed her men’s shirts for blouses, and get rid of her “trademark knee socks.”
With James Schlessinger (Historicimages)
When Ray announced for Governor, Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman was generally thought the man to beat. But he had his own problems, stemming from poor relations with Seattle’s Labor Unions. He was also hampered by the candidacy of lawyer Marvin Durning, who had much support from the left. Uhlman recognized Ray’s appeal in some segments early, and sought to blunt her momentum. He spent $300,000, called her inexperienced, and campaigned hard to win over rural votes. The result was a near photo finish. Ray emerged the winner by 7,000 votes, 38-37%.
The fall campaign was equally tough. King County Executive John Spellman had won the GOP nod easily, and seemed to have a unified party behind him. Ray meanwhile, was slow to coalesce support from Democrats, including her chief rivals. Uhlmann offered lukewarm support, while Durning refused to say whether he supported her at all.
Meanwhile, Spellman would be hampered somewhat by Ray’s gender, as he could never be certain whether voters would take to attacks on her. As for her personality, she’d say, “Dixy bubbled. And that was infectious.”
And her positions were enough to gain at least some conservatives, and she won 54-46%, after which she popped open champaigne and bellowed, “How sweet it is!” When asked how she won, Ray replied “it can’t be because I’m so pretty?”
It didn’t take her long for Washingtonians to realize that Ray was not warm and fuzzy. She dismissed Evans’ staff, making the case that “no one owns a job. From now on, we’ll send them a Kleenex at the time they’re fired if they’re going to be a crybaby.” She alienated the media by getting rid of early morning press conferences and named 11 of her piglets after a member of the press (she’d later proceed to offer them sausages the pigs had laid). Instead, she’d get to the public by forums.
Still, Ray had many-a-line, which would become known as “Dixyisms.” On an oil spill, she’d say, “Clearly its major effect is on birds. . . and that is not happy. I hate to say this, but birds die every day. In every major oil spill, marine life has recovered in a year.” On averages, “beware” of them. The average person has one breast and one testicle.”
Ray had notoriously poor relations with the press (Historylink.org)
Later in her tenure, she’d close a state mental hospital and, as Congressional Quarterly noted, “slash(ed) state funds available for dental care for the elderly and day care of mothers in job training.” And she was staunchly pro-development. Her unyielding style would make her relations with the Legislature poor.
On one occasion, State Representative Steve Tupper asked a question on behalf of a constituent on why money was being used to build a new prison when a facility was already in existence. Ray’s response: “you tell you’re constituent to go to hell.” Tupper wasn’t shocked. Once she makes up her mind that’s the end of discussion.”
Residents didn’t approve either. Bumper stickers would say “Nix on Dixy.” By the end of her first year, a local reporter would write “She is iconoclastic, and she wastes no time in taking up the cudgels.”
Ray tests an airbag (Press Photo)
Born in Tacoma, Ray quickly carved out a niche as the tomboy.” Her name alone is worthy of tidbits. Her birthname was Marguerite, but as a child, she was often called, “little dickens.” “Dixie” sounded too girlish for the tomboy. So “Dixy” was fitting. As for her middle name: she was said to have chosen that after Civil War General Robert E. Lee.
It was when her father — for whom she’d later become estranged, bought a farm at Fox Island that she developed an appreciation for “unpleasant, creepy, crawly things,” and thus, the outdoors. She joined the girl scouts at 10 and reached the summit of Mount Ranier at 12.
Ray would become a zoology instructor at the University of Washington, the only woman on the faculty at that time. She’d stay for 27 years. The Washington Secretary of State website said “she dazzled students with her lively approach to marine biology and her memory for names, faces and details.”
Ray would later go on to host a local television show on animals and was credited with revitalizing the Pacific Science Center, which she directed. The Seattle Maritime Society would make her her it’s a man of the year, the first woman to attain such an honor.
Magnuson had blocked Ray’s bid to serve on a federal science commission, but deferred to “scoop” Jackson when he had recommended her or the Atomic Energy Commission. But her chief advocacy was atomic energy, letting opponents in on it’s positive uses, which she noted was infinite. “There is no question that the nuclear industry comes off very well,” she said. On control, she’d say, “the reality is that zero defects in products plus zero pollution plus zero risk on the job is equivalent to maximum growth of government plus zero economic growth plus runaway inflation.”
Eventually, she became assistant secretary of state for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. It was when she complained that Henry Kissinger was ignoring her advice that Ray returned to the other Washington to exert influence in state politics. And did she succeed.
Her commitment to atomic energy was fierce, and so became her rivalry with Magnuson. He said the state “is not going to be a dumping ground for nuclear waste and there are not going to be any oil tankers on Puget Sound.” And from his perch as Appropriations Chair, he inserted a “little amendment” into a bill to prohibit just that.
How did Ray respond? By telling her inner circle that Magnuson was no spring chicken and recruiting potential successors, should he be unable to serve his term. Among the names: Senate Majority Leader Doug Walgren, if he would help her legislatively. Magnuson vowed that and said his seat “was not available to bargaining” (ultimately, he’d be unseated for re-election by Republican Slade Gorton).
The most notable crisis during her tenure was the eruption of Mt. St. Helen in 1980. She’d be criticized for not doing enough to communicate with local officials.
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content.lib.washington.edu
For her 1980 re-election, Ray would receive a staunch challenge from Jim McDermott. Though the state party would not offer an endorsement, McDermott was buoyantly cheered and Ray exited the building. She started off well ahead in the polls and her ties to industry (she was called “the best friend business ever had”), gave her a big money edge over McDermott. But by late-summer, but when he was seen within striking distance of her, that changed. She charged he was in favor of “pornography, prostitution, and pot” for supporting the Democratic platform.
Among Ray’s defectors: Blair Butterworth, a former campaign consultant, who would say later, “We thought she would be the best governor Washington ever had, or the worst, and we were right.” McDermott beat her by 87,000 votes but would go on to lose the general to Spellman.
After her term ended, Ray returned to her farm on Fox Island to raise animals. But she’d continue commenting on issues, local and national almost to her dying day. She’d author two books with a senior advisor, Ray Guzzo: “Trashing the Planet” and “Environmental Overkill.” Chernobyl, she said, ‘was not a catastrophy.” And five days before her death: “Everybody is exposed to radiation. A little bit more or a little bit less is of no consequence.”
Guzzo called Ray, “a scientist above all else, and told it like it is. Unfortunately, in politics, that can be hurtful. She really wasn’t a politician.”
She passed away in 1994 at 79. Whatever one’s partisan persuasion, all agree that few will see the likes of her again.