booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Chapter nine: “He’s gonna get you next”
As the lone Republican candidate for Pierce County executive in 1981, Larry
Faulk had a free ride into the finals on March 10. Booth faced a challenge from Tacoma
Mayor Mike Parker in the Feb. 3 primary. At turns flamboyant and abrasive, Parker was
a polarizing figure but still considered the frontrunner. “I’m just a runner,” he protested.
However, when told that Gardner and Faulk thought he was the man to beat, Parker smiled
and said, “They must be reading the same polls that I am.”
That Gardner was in fact “Booth who?” was confirmed by a poll he commissioned
before entering the race. It
found that Parker had 96
percent name recognition.
Only 40 percent had heard
of Booth Gardner. Sixty-five
percent held a favorable
view of Parker, while
Booth’s approval rating was
20 percent. It had been
11 years since he had run
for elective office in Pierce
County. “Nobody knew who
I was,” he says.
The Gardner
campaign launched a
$38,000 series of ads that
stressed his management
moxie and dedication to
public service. “The first must be the very best,” voters were told in a meet-the-candidate
manifesto that took up nearly a whole page. “We’ve made a business decision here in
Pierce County. We voted to change our form of local government and to give one man, the
County Executive we elect, the power and authority to lead the County Council in a total
reorganization of every department so that we can have a united Pierce County. It’s going to
take quite a guy! That’s why we’re for Booth Gardner.” The next ad asked, “Which man would
you hire?” It compared the candidates’ qualifications side by side, noting that Booth had an
MBA from Harvard vs. Parker’s three years of college. Under “Current Responsibilities,” it said
Booth managed a company with 1,200 employees and an annual budget of $150 million. The
mayor’s budget was listed as $254,000, with two direct-report employees. The Municipal
League rated Booth “outstanding” and Parker “adequate.” Parker jabbed that the best
Booth and Larry Faulk at a debate during their 1981 race for Pierce County executive.
©The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) 1981 Reprinted with permission.
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