OLYMPIA — Republican Ellen Craswell brought the force of grace and religious conviction to her party, the state Legislature and nearly the governor’s mansion.
The Bothell native died Saturday night at the Martha &Mary Health Care Center in Poulsbo, where she was receiving care in a third battle against cancer. She was 75.
Craswell, a born-again Christian, helped fortify the ranks of the state Republican Party with social and religious conservatives inspired by her principled and unyielding political stances.
“I’ll remember her for her political courage,” Snohomish County Councilman John Koster said Monday. “She fought for the things she believed in.”
State Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, is one of Craswell’s recruits.
“She was a mentor to me,” Stevens said, noting Craswell encouraged her to seek office. “She’d say you do the right thing and it doesn’t matter if you’re the only one standing.”
Craswell stood alone often in a legislative career that began in 1976 in the state House of Representatives. She served two terms then moved on to the Senate for three terms and in 1987 became the first female Senate president pro tem.
She earned a reputation for speaking out against taxes and excess spending.
After the first of what would be three bouts with cancer, she had a transformation that led to her focus on moral and social issues.
“She migrated from being a Reagan Republican into a Pat Robertson Republican,” said John Carlson, a political commentator on radio and former GOP candidate for governor. “All along she had impeccable manners, civility and infectious good cheer.”
In 1996, four years out of office, she tried to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. Gary Locke.
“She introduced to the governor’s race a style and a class that we have not seen since,” said Paul Elvig of Everett, a former Snohomish County Republican Party chairman. “She stood firmly for what she believed in, and compromise was not part of her vocabulary.”
Her outspoken ideas on uniting biblical teachings with governmental practice proved beyond what many people were willing to support statewide.
Linda Smith’s defeat two years later to Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray made it clear the electorate was shying away from the GOP’s overtly conservative torchbearers.
Eric Earling of Lynnwood, a Republican blogger on the conservative Web site Sound Politics, called Craswell’s campaign a tipping point in suburbs “where independent voters began to take a reflexively negative view of Republican candidates running for statewide office.”
Todd Donovan, political science professor at Western Washington University, said social conservatives Craswell helped recruit had gained power in the party in the 1990s but had not shown a commitment to running electable candidates.
It proved “damaging to the statewide prospects of the party and obviated the need to create a mainstream face for the party,” he said. The effort to reclaim the mainstream continues today.
Larry Stickney, a close friend and executive director of the Lynnwood-based Family Policy Institute, said Craswell’s run for governor was a triumph for grass-roots activism and very winnable.
He said Craswell felt “greatly betrayed” by the party and “deeply hurt” by the outcome. He said party moderates and business interests that help bankroll GOP candidates abandoned her.
Craswell and her husband, Bruce, would later leave the Republican Party for the American Heritage Party.
“When they left, the Republican Party lost its heart and soul and many of their hardest workers followed,” he said.
Despite the outcome, the 1996 race drew people into politics who had not been involved before, said Leslie McMillan, the campaign’s director.
“She was so open about her faith. People were drawn to that straightforwardness,” she said.
The campaign’s theme was “Faith, Family, Freedom.”
“It wasn’t a strategic maneuver without substance,” McMillan said. “It really was the essence of her character as a political leader.”
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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