Benton Predicts He’Ll Weather Gop Storm

Fri., Dec. 8, 2000

From Staff

State Republican Chairman Don Benton predicted Thursday that he will weather the protests he touched off by unilaterally deciding to move the party headquarters and by leaving large sums of money unspent while some GOP candidates were narrowly losing in last month’s election.

Some party activists say they’re shopping for someone to challenge Benton at next month’s chairmanship election, possibly John Carlson, who lost his bid for governor last month. Carlson has been mum on his intentions.

Benton said “Absolutely, I will run for re-election, and I hope for the future of the party that I win.”

Benton said that, in retrospect, he should have conferred with his executive board before committing $365,000 in party money to buy a party headquarters building in Olympia.

Some party activists are steamed that the state party wound up with a surplus of as much as $1 million while Sen. Slade Gorton was losing by a few thousand votes and Republicans were losing close races that could have given the party control of both houses of the Legislature.

One of Benton’s state Senate colleagues, Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane, said he doesn’t know if Benton can weather the storm.

“Don is a hip-shooter,” McCaslin said. “Don bought a building and paid cash and didn’t tell anyone about it. He left all this money in the coffers. I said he would be either the best chairman we ever had or an absolute disaster. I guess I’m about half right.”

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