booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

The stage was set for a Gardner-Faulk rematch. Booth told reporters he was
anything but a shoo-in for the $48,000-a-year job, adding that Faulk was “a very good
candidate” and a great campaigner. Philosophically, they differed little. Both characterized
themselves as moderates – fiscally conservative businessmen with strong social
consciences. They went mano-a-mano 27 times in five weeks, eating rubber chicken with
Lions and Rotarians from Steilacoom to Puyallup.
Faulk came out swinging, accusing Gardner of a conflict of interest. Before stepping
down a year earlier, Booth headed Northwest Building Corp., which had plans to build a
shopping center north of Puyallup. He had remained on the company’s board until entering
the race for county executive. William Clapp, Booth’s half-brother, joined the Laird Norton
Co. as he was gearing up to re-enter politics and was a corporate officer of Northwest
Building Corp. Booth said Faulk was trying to suggest “I’d have trouble saying ‘no’ to my
brother. That would be no problem for me.” Gardner’s business ties quickly emerged as
both an asset and a liability. He was on the boards of the Weyerhaeuser Co., Washington
Mutual Savings Bank and Puget Sound National Bank. Faulk said the potential for conflicts
of interest was all over the Pierce County map. Booth countered that his connections
would allow him to create new jobs and broaden the county’s economic base. “I won’t
have a conflict of interest,” he told the press matter-of-factly. “If there is, I’ll deal with it
when it comes up.” He also once again answered Faulk’s charge of vote-buying, saying, “If
I have the money, don’t I have a right to do with it as I wish? I’m not into material things.”
He was driving a plain-Jane Volkswagen Dasher diesel, and noted that if elected county
executive he’d take a huge pay cut.
* * *
“Rich Man, Poor Man,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer headlined its election advance.
Faulk unleashed a series of crisp, hard-hitting ads that would be effective even today: “THIS
COUNTY DOESN’T NEED A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE. WE NEED A LEADER. LARRY FAULK CAN
DO BETTER THAN BOOTH.” Another asked, “WILL YOU VOTE FOR DAVID OR GOLIATH?”
Next came “WHY IS BOOTH GARDNER TRYING TO BUY YOUR VOTE?” Then, down the
stretch, with a wicked gut-punch, Faulk reminded voters that Gardner had resigned from
the State Senate after less than three years: “THE LAST TIME THE PEOPLE ELECTED BOOTH
GARDNER TO OFFICE, HE WALKED OUT ON THEM.”
Faulk also ripped Gardner for securing exemptions from state financial disclosure
laws. Greg Barlow represented Booth at the state Public Disclosure Commission hearings,
asserting that it would cost the businesses in which Gardner was involved considerable
time and expense to list all their financial holdings and transactions. The commission
accepted the alternative Barlow proposed, allowing Gardner to report his top 10 sources of
income from each company and the 10 largest transactions made in Pierce County by each
firm over the past years. The commission also granted Gardner’s request that the assets of
his blind trust not be listed.
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