booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

system, there are still people … who believe they can call me ‘nigger’ and get away with
it.” Smith said “a cabal” of his colleagues conducted a “reign of terror” between 1990
and 1993 in an attempt to make him so angry that he would resign. The incident revolved
around the firing of one of Justice Smith’s law clerks over sexual harassment allegations.
Former chief justice Gerry Alexander, who served on the high court with Smith
for eight years, believes picking Smith was one of Gardner’s best decisions as governor.
“Charlie Smith was probably the perfect guy to break the color barrier,” says Alexander.
“He’s a remarkable man.”
Terry Sebring, Gardner’s legal counsel until Booth appointed him to the Pierce
County Superior Court bench in 1990, says the governor carefully weighed his judicial
appointments. Marsha Pechman, Robert Lasnik and Ricardo Martinez, who became
federal judges, were first appointed to the Superior Court bench by Gardner, as was
future Supreme Court Justice Bobbe Bridge. William Downing, a former prosecutor whom
Gardner named to the King County Superior Court bench in 1989, emerged as one of the
state’s most thoughtful and civic-minded judges.
* * *
With a free ride into the General Election in November, Booth had a fundraising
field day, collecting $1.1 million, compared to $260,000 for Maleng and $174,000 for
Williams. And while his Republican challengers concentrated on winning the primary, he
was being gubernatorial, buoyed by an economy that owed much of its rebound to a highflying
Boeing.
Smokers fumed but the reviews were mostly positive when Booth banned smoking
in any state office or vehicle over which he had executive control, effective January 1, 1989.
He also raised once again the issue that would be one
of the hallmarks of his years as governor: standardsbased
education. To counter the disturbing dropout rate
in urban school districts, he proposed a plan to require
grade-school students to demonstrate minimum levels of
competence in reading, writing and math before moving
on to junior high. A program of tests, tutoring and retests
should be implemented to help children develop
“these crucial basic skills and a sense of success rather
than a sense of failure” that leads to dropping out, the
governor said. Exemptions would be made for students
with learning disabilities. Gardner said he was more interested in holding educators
responsible for student achievement than holding back kids with litmus tests.
* * *
On Sept. 20, Williams’ enthusiastic network of 14,000 “family values” volunteers
out-hustled Maleng’s mainstream Republicans. Williams took 20 percent of the primary
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