Don Nickles: “everyone has been focused on the Presidential election. It has been one of the most drawn out Presidential elections in…”

“everyone has been focused on the Presidential election. It has been one of the most drawn out Presidential elections in U.S. history. Another election came to conclusion recently, and that was the Senate race in the State of Washington, one of the closest Senate races in many years. It took weeks to discern. Our friend and colleague, Senator Slade Gorton, was defeated. I want to make a couple comments concerning our colleague, Senator Gorton. I had hoped he would not lose this race because he is a friend of mine and, in my opinion, he is one of the most outstanding Senators we have had. By way of a little history, I was elected with Senator Gorton in 1980. Both of us were freshman Senators. He was formerly an attorney general. He gained some attention nationwide in that he and his family bicycled all the way across our country. It shows they are a close family and individuals with endurance and athletic talent. He is an outstanding Senator. He lost reelection in 1986, unfortunately. A lot of people lost. It was a tough year. That was certainly one of the toughest losses we had. I remember stating at that time when Senator Gorton lost that he was a Senator's Senator. I hated to see him lose that race. He showed great endurance and came back in 1988 and won and also won reelection in 1994. As I mentioned, he was just defeated in a very close race in 2000. Senator Gorton has served 18 years in the Senate.”