booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

the trenches during the WEA’s first strikes, says that “If you grade on a curve, he gets an A.”
Veteran state employees will tell you Gardner was the governor they saw the most,
popping up unannounced to stroll through an office or to have lunch with a road crew.
Booth always said his
“MBWA” – Managing by
Walking Around – was
more valuable than
his MBA from Harvard.
Gary Lowe, the lobbyist
for the Association of
Washington Counties
during the Gardner era,
marveled that Booth
“could step in dog shit
and splatter it on the
Queen and have her say,
‘Thank you very much
and I enjoyed my visit to
Olympia.’ ”
Most of the reporters who couldn’t get over how much he liked to be liked will tell
you how much they like him. “Give my best to Booth,” they all say.
His former staffers and cabinet members have regular reunions. They’re extremely
proud to have been part of his team. That includes Governor Chris Gregoire. She was a
young assistant attorney general working on a landmark pay-equity settlement when Booth
spotted her as someone special. He’d call and say, “Hey, how are you doing, kid?” The
first time it happened, she recognized his voice but was incredulous. “Governor?” And he
said, “Yeah. I’m heading your way. Let’s get a cheeseburger.” “It was amazingly disarming,”
Gregoire says. “But that was Booth.”
At home and nationally, when he became president of the National Governors’
Association, Gardner campaigned for health care reform. “Health care is a right,” he
insisted in the 1980s. The Basic Health Care program he launched in 1987 to assist the
“working poor” was the first of its kind in the nation. He also played a leading role in the
push for standards-based education. Later, however, when the Washington Assessment
of Student Learning – the controversial WASL – emerged as the litmus test for high school
graduation, Booth insisted that there had to be alternatives. If he had learned only one
thing in his 40 years of working with minorities and other disadvantaged kids, Gardner
said, it was that one size doesn’t fit all “and every kid counts.” When he championed earlychildhood
education and “First Steps” programs for needy kids, his mantra was “You can
pay me now or you can pay me later – and later will cost a lot more.”
“Hi! I work for the state!” says Booth, greeting Tim Miller when the Puyallup resident stopped
for gas at a filling station in Puyallup. Geff Hinds ©The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) 1988
Reprinted with permission.
5