The Andrew Johnson Song

If Andrew Johnson
Hadn't been such a stubborn cuss
Congress would be running the country today--

A reality from which may the Lord ever deliver us!

Buttons - State Campaign - 1972

Jim McDermott is known today as the long time Congressman from Seattle and is the most outspoken liberal in the Washington State delegation in that Other Washington. Since 1988 he was won elections by ridiculously huge margins (over 80% in 2010 for example). But it wasn't always so. Long ago he made two unsuccessful bids for Governor. In 1972 he failed to win the Democratic primary and in 1980 he lost the general election.

I might be wrong, but I think I picked up this button in his 1972 bid, when he was a little known member of the Washington State House of Representatives. And in 1972, when he was trying to win name recognition, it seems strange to have a button with no words on it. Maybe it was this sort of marketing that lost him the primary.

Buttons - Federal Campaign - 1988

Jolene Working for You

For U.S. Congress, Democrat

Jolene Unsoeld served as the Congressperson for Washington State's 3rd District 1989-1995. Every now and then our paths cross at the grocery store, like last week, and I enjoy hearing her take on the political scene.

Don't know what the deal is with those brown spots. I am sure I picked this button up when it was new and pristine.

Buttons - Federal Campaign - ca. 1970

Re-Elect Julia Butler Hansen, Democrat, Congress

She was the Congressperson for the Washington State's 3rd District for several terms, until 1975.

Buttons - Federal Campaign - 1960s

Hughes for Congress Republican

File Your Protest

OK, OK, I know this isn't a button. It's a nail file with a pun, but I am going to include it anyway. I picked this up at a booth at the Southwest Washington Fair in Washington State's 3rd Congressional District some time in the 1960s.