booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

In the beginning was The Message: “It’s the economy and efficiency,” Dotzauer
says. “Booth Gardner’s management expertise turned red ink into black. He did it in Pierce
County and he can do it for the state. That was our mantra.”
Whose idea was “Booth Who?” – the most memorable, and apt, campaign slogan in
state history? Dotzauer says it sprang up spontaneously. They were in Spokane during the
holidays on one of Booth’s
first forays into Eastern
Washington when someone
in a crowd said, “Who is
Booth Gardner?” Outside
of Pierce County, “he had
like a 6 or 7 percent name
ID,” Dotzauer says. Dick
Larsen of The Seattle Times
quipped that at that time
Booth “had a name-and
face-familiarity that ranged
from, approximately, the
Steilacoom tideflats to the
Poodle Dog (restaurant) at
Fife.” Dotzauer remembers
saying, “Look, why don’t we
print up some buttons that say, ‘Booth Who?’ Let’s just have some fun with this.” Booth and
Jean Gardner loved the idea. Hispanic groups even produced a “Quien es Booth?” button.
Booth had never been around anyone like Dotzauer. He was buoyed by his shrewd
buckaroo ebullience as the campaign took shape. Dotzauer was there to look him in
the eye, straighten his tie and boot him in the butt whenever he needed it. Sometimes
tentative, given his natural shyness and insecurity, a good crowd could recharge Booth’s
batteries. He’d talk about seeing Al Rosellini’s helicopter when he was a kid and the
importance of public service. “His intuition was amazing,” Dotzauer says. “I mean, he just
had an instinct for relating to people. His retail politics skill set was as good as they get.
Maybe Scoop’s at some levels was better but they both had incredible name recall. And
although Booth was a lot more reluctant about campaigning than Scoop, he got good at it.
Booth Gardner is an amazingly compassionate guy who just cares for people like nobody
I’ve met. And in terms of the strength of his character, he really wants people to do well.
He wants to help them get the skills and the opportunities to be successful.” However,
Dotzauer says Gardner was reluctant to play up his work with disadvantaged kids. He finally
agreed to a TV spot about the Central Area Youth Association but “he really didn’t want to
talk about it,” so they rounded up people he’d worked with and brought them to his house.
On the campaign trail in 1984. From left, Ron Dotzauer, Doug Gardner, press aide Tim
Zenk, and Booth. Photo courtesy Ron Dotzauer.
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