Let’s remember when two powerful legislators were charged in the “GamScam” scandal, on this day in 1980 (April 2)
GamScam was one of the most well-known scandals to hit Washington state politics. In 1980, two powerful Democrats, co-House Speaker John Bagnariol and Senate Majority Leader Gordon Walgren, were charged after an FBI sting caught them agreeing to allow gambling in the state in exchange for part of the profits.
On April 2, 1980, House of Representatives co-Speaker John Bagnariol (ca. 1932–2009) and Senate Majority Leader Gordon L. Walgren are named in a federal racketeering indictment that charges they conspired with undercover FBI agents posing as organized crime figures to allow gambling in Washington in return for a share of the profits. The two Democratic legislative leaders are among the most powerful politicians in the state and both have been planning to seek higher office in the fall. Instead, Bagnariol and Walgren, along with their friend lobbyist Patrick Gallagher, who is also named in the charges, will be convicted and sentenced to prison. Both legislators will lose their seats in the fall elections. The Gamscam scandal, as it comes to be known, will contribute (along with the Reagan landslide and other factors) to sweeping victories by the Republican party in legislative and statewide races.
1980 was an unusually bad year for Democrats with an unpopular president in the time of a recession, an unpopular governor in Washington, and the two most powerful Democrats in the legislature were bound for prison. But 1980 would also be the last time a Republican was elected governor. So there’s that.
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