http://www.boston.com/news/politics/governors/articles/2004/08/31/racial_questions_roil_washington_governor_contest/The race for governor of Washington has taken a divisive detour down memory lane after revelations that, as the debate over civil rights raged, the Democratic front-runner served as chapter president of an all-white sorority that enforced an unwritten rule of racial and religious exclusion.
The brouhaha erupted last week when The Seattle Times, the state's largest newspaper, published a lengthy front-page story on Attorney General Christine Gregoire's decision in 1966, as a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Washington, to pledge Kappa Delta, a sorority with roots in the South that barred nonwhites and non-Christians, despite her personal opposition to the policy.
The ensuing controversy has roiled the gubernatorial race, drawing comparisons from Gregoire and her defenders to the questions raised about John F. Kerry's Vietnam service by veterans angered by the Massachusetts senator's antiwar efforts. Gregoire is pitted against King County Executive Ron Sims, an African-American, in the Democratic primary slated for Sept. 14.
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