SPOKANE, Wash. – US Speaker of the House Thomas Foley (D), who represented Spokane’s 5th district for 30 years, was a major advocate for Expo ‘74 in the years leading up to the event.
While Spokane’s World’s Fair has become an iconic part of city history, it was a potential political vulnerability in 1972.
Foley was running for reelection to his 5th district seat in 1972 against Republican opponent Clarice Privette, who used the expo to argue that her opponent was overly zealous with taxpayer funds according to the Spokesman-Review.
Privette made a public declaration less than a month before the November elections that a $3.5 million congressional appropriation to Expo ‘74’s pavilion development was an attempt by Foley to funnel money to private interests.
“Working men’s tax dollars are paying the bills…to line the pockets of Spokane businessmen, contractors and promoters of Expo ‘74,” Privette said.
Construction of the vast infrastructure needed to support the global event came from a combination of federal, state, city and county funding. Privette and other conservative 1972 candidates argued that the money was better spent on issues including national security and healthcare. =
While Privette may have been opposed to funding the fair, it appears that Lilac City voters were not. Foley beat his opponent in the 1972 congressional election by over 115,000 votes according to the official congressional record.
The funding spat illustrates that while it may be beloved now, the success of Spokane World’s Fair was not an inevitability. The vision of the only Speaker of the House from the Evergreen State was a critical component of making Expo ‘74 a reality.
