1912 was a wild election in Washington State. Nationally, former president Theodore Roosevelt was not happy with the performance of William H. Taft and was making a bid to return to the White House as part of the newly formed Progressive Party. The Republican vote split, handing the office to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, a figure who otherwise would never have had a chance. Since all three candidates identified themselves as "progressives," the choice appeared to be more about personal style rather than issues.

The Washington State gubernatorial election had a few things in common with the national contest. The incumbent, Marion Hay, was the Republican Lt. Governor who had taken office after the death of Gov. Samuel Cosgrove. Up to this point, fate had not been kind to incumbent Washington State governors. Due to being burned out, passed over in conventions or primaries, or death, the office chewed up the occupants something fierce. Hay had served most of the term and was a solid Taft man. He survived a primary election only to see a large segment of his fellow Republicans bolt and create a Washington State Progressive Party. Given the fact that TR carried the state, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the Progressive Party candidate for Governor would also move into the new mansion overlooking Budd Inlet.

But the Progressives made one big mistake. They nominated Robert Tait Hodge.

Hodge was supposed to win and his ticket should've taken over Olympia just like the Populists did in 1896, but it was not to be. Hodge's fall was dramatic, a victim of the politics of personal destruction, and he took his ticket with him as he fell.

Hodge was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, Mar. 17, 1875, one of 16 children of William and Margaret (Dingwall) Hodge. His father was a wholesale and retail grocer. Clarence Bagley's 1916 biographical entry on Hodge includes this description of his immigration to Washington State: "Robert Tait Hodge was reared in his native city, where he was graduated from the grammar school in 1886 and from Dumbarton Academy in 1887 with the Bachelor of Arts degree. After leaving the academy he entered upon a seafaring life as an apprentice bound for three years, during which period he made three trips around the Horn. On the last voyage he contracted yellow fever and when he had recovered he made his way to Tacoma, where for four months he was employed in a cracker factory. He afterward secured a situation as a farm hand and followed agricultural pursuits for eighteen months. Later he entered the employ of the Great Northern Railway Company, driving a freight train in teaming over the mountains for construction work in 1891 and 1892. He next took up prospecting and mining at Black Diamond, Monte Cristo and in British Columbia, following mining successfully for eleven years, during which period he acquired considerable valuable mining property. He has done all sorts of work in connection with the development of mines from driving mules to managing mining operations as owner ... In early life he had all the assistance which his parents could give him in the way of providing him with opportunities for an education and in other directions, and when he reached the new world he had quite a little sum of money to aid him in starting out, but later he met with misfortune, as through misplaced confidence in a supposed friend he was robbed of his entire savings. He then had to start out in business anew and his success is due to his own efforts. His life has been varied and he has had many trying and sometimes thrilling experiences ..."

Somewhere in there Bob Hodge had also been a prize-fighter. A fact that would later be used against him by the Republicans.

Bagley neglects to mention Hodge was almost elected Governor in 1912. He also does not include Hodge's marriage to Jennie Stark in the Comox District, B.C. in 1895 even though his four sons show up in the biography. This could be due to Bagley merely reprinting old copy, or it could be a deliberate omission. If the latter is true, there are reasons for it.

Hodge became part of the public sector Feb. 28, 1903 when he was appointed Deputy Sheriff and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in King County. Active as a Republican, he was elected King County Sheriff in 1908 at which point he moved from Black Diamond to Seattle.

As King County Sheriff, Hodge was making a name for himself as a controversial figure. There was even talk of his running for Governor. Considering John McGraw used the position of King County Sheriff as a springboard to the Governorship in 1892, the notion didn't seem so strange. In 1911 Frank Calvert summed up Hodge as Sheriff: "The fighting quality in Robert T. Hodge came out when he locked horns with Prosecuting Attorney George F. Vanderveer and the Commissioners on the appointment of jail physician, the question of feeding Federal prisoners and other matters affecting King County jail. It lasted for rather more than a year, and all the while was a lively affair, with Hodge in fighting trim every minute of the time. There were those who believed that Hodge had killed himself politically by this controversy, for it led to a prediction that none of the parties to it, under the direct primary, would ever be permitted to hold office again. Hodge promptly showed the fallacy of such argument by standing for re-election, and triumphantly succeeding himself. He is a coal miner who has become sheriff, and there are some who believe he would make a creditable run for governor. Hodge himself is not saying much on this point, but it cannot be denied that he is the center of some lively gossip as a political possibility." Some trivia: George Vanderveer would later gain fame as the defense attorney in the Centralia Massacre case.

When the Progressive ("Bull Moose") Party took hold in Washington State, Hodge climbed aboard and his rise as a candidate was promoted by the Seattle Star and the Tacoma Times. But there were some early warning signs. True professional politicians, such as U.S. Sen. Miles Poindexter, sensed Hodge was an accident waiting to happen and failed to persuade the Sheriff not to run as early as January, 1912. And there was also the matter of the Progressive Party primary. Hay biographer Hermas J. Bergman explains: "The Bull Moose primary embarrassed its backers. Because of the delay in the formation of the third party, the filing dates for the regular primary had passed before the necessary organization could be completed. Thus the Progressives were forced to hold a preferential primary which only served as an expression of opinion and had no legal standing. Only about 10 per cent of the registered voters took part. Moreover, some of the results both surprised and disappointed many of the party leaders. One of the disappointments was the victory of Robert Hodge in the gubernatorial race. The former sheriff had strong support, particularly among labor groups, but neither his personal background nor his political antecedents were nearly as impressive as those of [William] Paulhamus. Since the primary had been unofficial, the selection of the final slate for the general election had to be carried out by a nominating convention a few days later. Strong opposition to Hodge's candidacy quickly developed and the convention almost set aside his selection. He apparently was saved only by a personal appearance before the delegates during which he reminded them of the Progressive emphasis on the right of the people to choose for themselves."

Then the games began. The Republicans and the Progressives aimed their attacks at each other, virtually ignoring the Democrats and the Socialists. The Republicans liked to refer to Hodge as being an uncouth lout. In the words of The Argus, Hodge "never associated with people of refinement, and is therefore simply a rough neck." They seemed unconcerned, apparently, with appearing to be elitist. In reponse to charges like this, his former rival Paulhamus said, "Well, Bob Hodge may have been a coal miner, he may have been sheriff of King County, but I have been to Olympia and I know we need a big two-fisted prize fighter there to save the treasury of the people." Sen. Poindexter may have had doubts about Hodge in private, but in public he went overboard in defending him: "But they say he is like what they said of Lincoln when he was elected president, that he is uncouth. Well, Lincoln did fairly well and when Bob Hodge is elected I think we can stand it if we have to dispense with some of the society functions to inject a little vigor into the dry dead bones of state office." The Progressives also liked to point to a Wall Street Journal article that gave a scathing description of the fiscal mismanagement of Washington State.

With Roosevelt sweeping the state, it looked like Hodge had a better than even chance of winning the Governorship. But then something happened. Bergman gives the scenario: "Robert Hodge, the Bull Moose candidate, quickly became a serious threat to Hay's hopes of re-election. His stirring platform manner and his colorful personality contrasted sharply with Hay's dull public image. Furthermore, he made political capital out of a heartwarming 'poor immigrant boy makes good' life story which contained all the ingredients appreciated by voters reared to believe in the possibilities of the American dream. As noted earlier, the working class supported him strongly, and it comprised a powerful segment of Washington's electorate even in those days. By mid-October, the Hodge tide was running so high, particularly in western Washington, that some of Hay's backers became frightened. For some time, spectacularly derogatory material about Hodge had been in their hands, and now they decided it must be used in order to save the election."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was not shy about slamming Hodge. In an attack that would later seem mild in comparison, and also a set-up for the personally devastating character assassination to follow, the pro-Hay newspaper included this passage in an Oct. 19th editorial: "No good citizen, whether Democrat, Republican, Socialist or whatnot, would with his eyes open, consent to put Hodge in the first position in this new, virile, progressive and beautiful commonwealth. It would be a crime against the state of Washington to place in the office of governor at the most promising period of our history a man of Hodge's kidney. Who and what is this man Bob Hodge, who is seeking the proudest and most powerful state position within the gift of the people of Washington? A blustering braggart; a former prize ring plug-ugly; a preacher of discontent; a political pretender; a man utterly without regard for the essential conventions of society; a passionate agitator who would use his authority as a bully uses his strength, a vain, mouthing demagogue, without knowledge of the genius of our government, without dignity, righteous courage or capacity for high service, a man who, in the office of governor, would bring discredit and scornful reproach upon this great state. Surely the people of Washington are too proud of their history, too proud of their achievements, and too jealous of the public and private integrity for which the state is famed to permit such a man to bluster his way into the high office of governor. When Bob Hodge attempted to climb above the constabulary dignity of a Dogberry, a mere server of writs, he got out of his sphere, and the intelligent and patriotic voters of this state will take that view by repudiating him at the polls on November 5 and retaining M.E. Hay as governor."

But the real attacks, the kind that draw blood, didn't start until the Oct. 21 issue of the SPI. Armed with legal documents and personal testimony, the newspaper began a series of articles under lurid headlines about Hodge's personal life. The first in the series carried this headline and subtitles: WIFE HODGE CAST OFF WAS BREADWINNER -- While He Loafed She Says She Worked at Washtub to Support Him and Their Children -- SHE COLD AT HOME, HE SNUG IN CARDROOM -- For Years Her Lot Was That of Drudge, Then as Sheriff He Got Into Fast Company, His Head Swelled and He Entered Divorce Court and Race for Governor.

Jennie Hodge told the reporters she had been living on the edge of poverty in the Bay Area ever since Bob quietly divorced her a year before. She accused her former husband of being a lazy drifter, a gambler, a dogfight enthusiast, a womanizer who was caught in the act more than once, a man who conducted "orgies" at the family home while the wife was away. The charges came late enough in the campaign to have an effect. Hodge could only reply that he didn't want to discuss his personal life in public.

His support evaporated. It didn't help him that women could legally vote in Washington since 1910. Leading Progressives announced they were voting for Ernest Lister, the up-til-now invisible Democrat. Lister, an English immigrant who had been mentored by Populist Gov. John Rogers, saw a rare opportunity for a Democratic Party gubernatorial victory and courted the Hodge defecters by presenting himself as almost a nonpartisan.

Lister's strategy worked. Barely. With a mere 622 votes the impossible happened, a Democrat won the Governorship. Republicans took all the other statewide offices. Hodge and his party fell just out of reach. The final result: Lister- 97,251 (31.49%), Hay- 96,629 (31.29%), Hodge- 77,792 (25.19%), Maley (Socialist)- 37,155 (12.03%). In comparison, Roosevelt carried the state with 35% of the vote. It was Hodge's to lose. It is amazing, even after all the sordid publicity to see how well he polled. Hodge carried Garfield and Snohomish counties and ran a close second in several others. Another bit of trivia here-- my great-grandparents, who were lonely Democrats in Centralia, enjoyed attending Lister's inaugural ball in 1913. The dress my great-grandmother wore on that occasion is now in the possession of the Lewis County Historical Society as proof that Democrats did exist in that neck of the woods.

Marion Hay was surprised by his defeat. A couple weeks after the election in a letter to a political pal he assigned the blame for his loss to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, " ... If the P.I. had not made such a bitter and prolonged fight on Hodge. If they had stopped the fight on Hodge ten days before the election I am sure I would have pulled through, but they kept it up to the last and it offended many people and many thought I was to blame for it."

As for the PI, the publisher, John L. Wilson, dropped dead of a heart attack on election night while following the returns.

In 1912 the voters sent 38 Progressives to the Legislature and they outnumbered the Democrats. The voters also approved initiative, referendum, and recall. So the Progressive agenda was not totally obliterated.

Bob Hodge basically vanishes from public life after this election. He continued to live in Seattle and set up shop as an attorney. In the early 1920s he apparently married a woman named Josephine, but then disappears from the record after 1923. In a genealogical forum, a grandchild of his wrote, " ... I know my grandfather died in an accident and was buried somewhere in the Seattle area."