Carolyn Dimmick Final PDF.indd - Washington Secretary of State

Dimmick: Yes.
Hughes: Did you have any opposition?
Dimmick: No, not that time.
Hughes: How much did it cost to get re-elected in 1984?
Dimmick: When I had competition – that was the next time, 1984 – I had all the records
and I think it was something like either $17,000 or $27,000. I can’t remember. It was
statewide (in the primary), and I had a person running against me who had an airplane,
Alan Merson. He would fly over Husky Stadium (with a banner boosting) “Merson for
Supreme Court!” I had a campaign committee. See, we’re not supposed to know who gave
us money for our campaign. And the committee would watch his reports. They would
match dollar for dollar what he was spending because we were not going to go and spend
15,000 dollars if he was spending 10. And so we ended up spending the same amount of
money.
Hughes: Was that a palatable thing to you, campaigning for election?
Dimmick: I didn’t want to do it. (laughs) I was shocked someone ran against me after all
those years.
Hughes: What was the issue? Why was he running against you?
Dimmick: Because he wanted the job.
Hughes: It was nothing personal?
Dimmick: No. He came down and talked to me. Jim Dolliver brought him in. Dolliver
knocks on my door and comes in with this guy. “This is Alan Merson. He’s running against
you for Supreme Court.” And I said, “Why?” And he says, “Well, no one has ever run
against you and I think the voters should have an opportunity.” I said, “OK.” What can
I say? But, I think the funny part involved Bob Bryan. Bob was a Superior Court judge
when I was, and we were all buddy-buddy. … So he goes down and finds Alan Merson
down in Pioneer Square, and he knocks on the door and says, “Are you running against
Judge Dimmick?” He said, “Yeah.” Bryan said, “You’re going to get eaten alive.” (Editor’s
Note: Justice Dimmick clobbered Merson by 300,000 votes in the primary and appeared
unopposed on the 1984 General Election ballot.)
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