booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

outcome for Pierce County would be to elect him and have Booth buy downtown Tacoma.
Booth spent $178,000 in the primary – $139,500 of it his own money. Parker spent
just short of $100,000. Booth said he had to spend that much to overcome Parker’s name
familiarity, the mayor having been in five political campaigns in the space of eight years,
including two for the Legislature, one for Congress and one for City Hall. Parker had upped
the ante in the beginning, saying he was prepared to spend $200,000 to win. Booth was
immediately in, saying he would match that, and everyone knew he could raise the stakes
in a heartbeat. “Parker set the rules,” he told reporters. “My attitude is that through my
efforts I’ve earned a great deal of money in my lifetime and I can spend it as I choose to
spend it.” (Faulk’s scrapbook contains that clipping. He highlighted “my efforts” in red ink
and wrote “B.S.”)
* * *
Parker stumbled badly down the stretch. He hired a right-wing direct-mail fundraiser
to send an “Urgentgram” to Democratic voters. Pierce County’s 10-member legislative
delegation called it “inexcusable” and endorsed Booth. Taking no chances, Gardner bought a
half-hour of prime time for $7,000 on the Sunday before the primary to air a “documentary”
– an “inside look at Booth Gardner,
his family, friends and neighbors.”
Booth pulverized Parker on
Feb. 3, taking 64 percent of the vote.
Standing on a desk at campaign
headquarters, balloons bobbing
around his head, he surveyed the
cheering crowd and declared, “I’m
stunned!” He didn’t mention that
his margin of victory was deceptive.
Washington’s open primary law
allowed Republicans to cross over
in droves to support his candidacy.
Faulk, who received 8,300 votes
to Gardner’s 37,500 and Parker’s
12,700, was able to conserve
his money – although there was
precious little of it at the time. He
spent less than $5,000 and pronounced it “the best primary election Booth ever bought.”
Besides the billboards, bus placards, radio commercials, TV spots, yard signs, newspaper
ads, two voter surveys, $14,000 worth of postage for multiple mailers and a half-dozen paid
campaign staffers, Gardner attributed his win to a “grassroots” effort that featured phone
banks and doorbelling. It was Faulk’s how-to-win-a-campaign manual on steroids.
Booth scores a stunning victory in the primary. ©The News Tribune
(Tacoma, WA) 1981 Reprinted with permission.
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