booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Chapter 12: Transitions & Lessons
“Most governors are legislators first, even if being an ‘insider’ is often an
electoral liability,” observes former state senator George W. Scott, a legislative historian.
Acknowledging that his legislative skills were weak, the governor-elect announced
early on that his chief of staff would be Dean Foster, chief clerk of the state House of
Representatives for all but two of the
previous 12 years. The protégé of a
redoubtable former Senate majority
Leader, R.R. “Bob” Greive, Foster began
working for the Legislature as a high
school student. “Dean will be my alter
ego,” Gardner said. “I just think it’s going
to work beautifully.”
Booth’s transition team was
headed by an efficient trio. The
budgetmaster was Orin Smith, a Harvard
MBA with state government experience
who was destined to become CEO of
Starbucks. Greg Barlow, Booth’s aidede-camp
from Pierce County, was the quartermaster, security man and campaign-debt
fundraiser. (Booth, tight as a tick, wanted his personal loans repaid.) Laird Harris, a bright
young policy wonk, coordinated the issues agenda and oversaw the committees producing
detailed workups on every state agency. Harris’ role was important and influential,
Foster says, because he was so good at it and “Booth wanted to know everything about
everything.” For all the talk about his managing by walking around, Foster says Gardner
was a “Harvard-trained business guy who loved to study facts and analyze policy.” A
diverse array of advisers and talent scouts – many of them unknowns but destined for
high-profile jobs in government and business – covered 18 key policy areas. Jim Kneeland
handled communications. His aunt, Rosalie Gittings, who had worked for Dean Foster and
Supreme Court Justice Hugh Rosellini, emerged as everyone’s favorite gal Friday. An old
hand in union and party politics, Gittings would become Booth’s personal assistant. Mary
Faulk, a versatile hospital administrator who was married to Booth’s old Pierce County
rival, crunched numbers for the team as a loaned executive from Tacoma’s Consolidated
Hospitals. Indispensable was former state senator A.N. “Bud” Shinpoch, a hard-nosed
liberal who had been chairman of the Ways & Means Committees in both chambers and
“knew the budget backward and forward.” Gardner spent countless hours on cabinet
selections.
Booth takes the oath of office from Chief Justice James Dolliver.
Wayne Zimmerman ©The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) 1985 Reprinted
with permission.
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