booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Callaghan observed that “for a guy who’s getting ready to run for the highest elective
office in the state,” Gardner seemed remarkably nonchalant, coming across “as someone
who won’t stay awake at night if he doesn’t become the next governor.” Some of his
supporters worried about whether he wanted the job badly enough. “Booth has to
persuade me that he has a fire in his belly,” said Grimm. Not to worry, said Gardner. “I
come off low-key, but like a duck I try to remain calm on the surface while I’m paddling
like mad underneath. But if I decide to do this, I’m going to give it all I’ve got. I’m a highly
competitive person.” In the months to come, many would copy Callaghan’s observation
that Gardner looked “like a cross between Bob Newhart and Tommy Smothers: preppy
but likeable.” But the lines that drew the most attention were these: “He voluntarily
walked into a government best known for its corruption, mismanagement and
patronage. In the spring of 1981, Pierce County was $4.7 million in the red. By the end of
this year, Gardner expects a surplus of $1 million. …Even his most vocal critics concede
he’s a master administrator. One of them, Rep. Ruth Fisher, D-Tacoma, suggests that
whomever is elected governor should hire Gardner to run the state.” Gardner said he
considered himself a businessman, not a politician. Of the race for governor, he said, “It’s
like starting a new business, only I’m the product.”
In August, former Seattle mayor Wes Uhlman, who had served with Booth in the
state Senate in the early ’70s, signed onto his finance committee. He said Gardner would
be the strongest candidate the Democrats could field against the vulnerable Spellman.
Uhlman urged state Senator Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, who had made two campaigns for
governor, to not run again. “Now it is someone else’s turn.”
* * *
In the drizzly days of December, a group of businessmen – most of them wellheeled
Republicans – huddled privately with Gardner at the Tacoma Club. They urged him
to seek re-election as Pierce County executive, not challenge Spellman. The Tacoma News
Tribune quickly got wind of it and tracked down some of the participants. Weyerhaeuser
executive Edward Soule confirmed that the “basic objective” was to dissuade him from
taking on Spellman. “We have high regard for Booth and what he has done for Pierce
County,” Soule said, adding that they were worried that no qualified candidate would step
forward to succeed him if he ran for governor. No more scandals, please. “There wasn’t
any arm-twisting,” said state Rep. Stan Johnson, a Republican from Lakewood. Despite
Gardner’s success in turning around Pierce County, he said most businessmen were solidly
behind Spellman. Booth was non-committal. “Basically, everyone there was a personal
friend of mine,” he told the paper. And he knew they knew what he knew: He could beat
Spellman. His New Year’s resolution was that 1984 was going to be his year, although as
the date to announce grew near he kept asking himself if he really knew what he was
getting into.
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