booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Chapter 11: Put on your crash helmets
Booth Gardner hired a campaign manager destined to become “one of the most
successful political operatives in Washington history.” A blend of James Carville and Wyatt
Earp, Ron Dotzauer was elected Clark
County auditor in 1974, just two years
out of college. But by 1983 he was
burned out and at loose ends. He’d lost
a bid for secretary of state, weighed
a run for Congress then won his spurs
running Scoop Jackson’s 1982 re-election
campaign for the U.S. Senate. Jackson’s
death a year later dazed the state.
Dotzauer had grown up in Everett in
the shadow of Scoop’s home and they
Ron Dotzauer in 2008. Photo courtesy Strategies 360.
had become close. Two very different men from different generations, they were both
ambitious Scandinavians who loved politics.
After overseeing the funeral and memorial service, Dotzauer got a call from Sterling
Munro, Scoop’s former longtime chief of staff who had gone on to head the Bonneville
Power Administration. They’d been racquetball pals in Vancouver during Dotzauer’s eight
years as county auditor. “What are you going to do next?” Munro asked. Dotzauer said he
might take a public relations job with a major bank. “Well,” said Munro, “Scoop wanted this
guy Booth Gardner to be the next governor.” What Gardner needed, he said, was someone
who knew how to run a campaign. Dotzauer said he’d think it over but doubted he was up
for a third statewide campaign in the space of four years. Another Gardner booster softened
him up with a fishing trip to Alaska. Yet another invited him over for a long chat. He ended
up having dinner at the Gardners. Jean Gardner was “diffident,” Dotzauer remembers, “but
Booth seemed to be really wanting to do this, and he was Booth’s charming self, right?”
Dotzauer moved into the Norton Building in downtown Seattle just before
Thanksgiving 1983. Election Day was a year away. “I sat there basically for 30 or 45 days
and just said, ‘Leave me alone. Let me figure out what we’re going to do for the next
year.’ ” The battle plan left nothing to chance – exhaustive opposition research, volunteer
coordinators, sharp press people, two pollsters, focused media buys in every region,
coupled with “the most massive sign campaign the state had ever seen for a candidate for
governor” – 27,000 in all, blanketing every legislative district. When Dotzauer decreed it
was time to get the sign mill rolling, he arrived at work one day to discover the parking lot
now contained 10-foot stacks of lovely Weyerhaeuser plywood. “Holy shit!” he said. “We
have enough wood to build half of downtown Seattle.”
76