BOOTH WHO? - Washington State Digital Archives

Gardner appointed the first ethnic minority to the Washington State Supreme
Court, the sagacious Charles Z. Smith, and a number of other judges who went on to have
distinguished careers. Gerberding notes that Booth also took great care in picking highquality
college regents and trustees. He strived to
promote women and minorities and championed gay
rights. He banned smoking in state workplaces. Indian
tribes hailed him for a landmark accord that recognized
their sovereignty. He helped usher in modern
growth management and environmental regulations
to rein in sprawl, clean up waterways and protect
farms, wetlands and wildlife. In timber towns he is
remembered as someone who worked tirelessly to
assist workers displaced by the spotted owl set-asides
when big-city environmentalists didn’t give a hoot.
Gardner readily admits, though, that his
checkered record of working with the Legislature,
especially in his first term, thwarted major portions of
his agenda and frustrated him to no end. All that infighting
and horse-trading – “I hated it!” Booth says.
“It was so distasteful to me. I almost wish I could do
it all over again. It was a missed opportunity. I should
have been better at it.”
That MBA of his became so much red meat
for his political opponents and disappointed pundits.
Jim Dolliver, a Supreme Court justice who had been
chief of staff to three-term Governor Dan Evans, had this assessment of Gardner in a 1999
oral history: “Booth was a charming young man who got along with everyone just fine. He
came to the governor’s office with some legislative experience, and I admired some of his
ideas. He might have been a great governor, but he was not willing or able to risk any of
his personal political capital to achieve greatness. He just sort of sat there, being nice to
everybody, never making anybody angry. For two terms. He was very lucky.”
The fact is, Gardner’s aversion to legislative politicking and gumption on key issues –
tax reform and standards-based education, to name two – made a lot of people angry, notably
the Washington Education Association and leading lawmakers in his own party. Washington
State has a “beltway” of its own, and some Olympia insiders and other old hands maintain
that Gardner was a mediocre governor. Adele Ferguson, whose Bremerton Sun political
column was syndicated statewide, feels more hoodwinked than most. She introduced him to a
statewide audience in 1982 and said he was the man to watch. When the honeymoon ended,
she spent most of the next seven years declaring with snarky vengeance that he was a fraud.
Booth contemplates a question during an editorial
board meeting. Kathy Quigg ©The Daily World
(Aberdeen, WA) 1991 Reprinted with permission.
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