Booth Who? A biography of Booth Gardner Washington’s Charismatic Governor By John C. Hughes Copyright 2010 Washington State Legacy Project Office of the Secretary of State All rights reserved Who’s who (In order of appearance) Robert Moore, Governor Booth Gardner’s great-great-great grandfather. He arrived in the Oregon Country from Illinois in 1840 and played a key role in its emergence as a territory. Manville S. Booth, the governor’s great-grandfather. He was elected King County auditor in 1874. Laurence S. Booth, the governor’s grandfather. He helped save the King County Courthouse in the great Seattle fire of 1889 and became president of the Washington Title Insurance Co. Evelyn Booth Gardner Clapp, the governor’s mother; a former model and socialite. Bryson Ross “Brick” Gardner, the governor’s father; sales manager for the Tacoma Cadillac dealer. William Booth Gardner, born August 21, 1936; Washington’s 19th governor. Gail Gardner, the governor’s sister (Gardner’s daughter is named in her honor.) Norton Clapp, president of the Weyerhaeuser Company and the governor’s powerful stepfather. Mildred “Millie” Blethen Gardner, the governor’s stepmother. Joan Blethen, the governor’s stepsister. They bonded in a household punctuated by dysfunction. Isaac Thomas, the African American man who befriended young Booth Gardner and coached the neighborhood kids. Stephen Merrill, the childhood friend who accompanied Booth and his mother on a fateful ski trip in 1951. Laird Harris, Booth’s policy adviser when he was governor and good friend. Lou Booth, the governor’s beloved aunt, with whom he lived while attending the University of Washington. Emory Bundy, student body president at the UW (1957-58) when Booth was first vice president. Katie Dolan, a tireless activist for the disabled whom Booth first met on the playfields of Seattle’s Central Area. O.L. Mitchell, a Seattle Central Area volunteer who inspired Booth. Al Rosellini, 15th governor of the State of Washington (1957-1965). He had a summer home near the Gardner family getaway on Vashon Island. Jean Forstrom Gardner, Booth’s first wife (1960-2001) and mother to Doug and Gail Gardner. Larry Faulk, the Republican state senator Booth defeated in 1970 in a race for the Legislature, then again in 1981 for Pierce County executive. Greg Barlow, director of the Medina Foundation and Booth’s chief of staff when he became Pierce County executive; Barlow was also a good friend of Faulk. Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, Washington’s legendary U.S. senator, who campaigned for Booth. Jim McDermott, a state senator from Seattle and future congressman; Booth’s rival for the 1984 Democratic nomination for governor. John Spellman, Washington’s 18th governor (1981-1985), who lost to Gardner in 1984 after a hard-luck term. Adele Ferguson, the feisty capitol correspondent for The Bremerton Sun. Her 1982 column introduced Booth to the rest of the state. Ron Dotzauer, Booth’s 1984 campaign manager. Steve Excell, John Spellman’s 1984 campaign manager. Richard W. Larsen, The Seattle Times political writer who dubbed Booth “Prince Faintheart.” Pete Taggares, the potato-grower who bankrolled Booth’s 1984 campaign in the early going. Denny Heck, a state representative from Vancouver; early supporter of Gardner and his second-term chief of staff. Jim Kneeland, Gardner’s first press secretary and a genius at staging photo-ops. Dean Foster, Gardner’s first chief of staff and key legislative liaison. Orin Smith, Gardner’s first director of the Office of Financial Management and a future CEO of Starbucks. Rosalie Gittings, Booth’s indispensable personal assistant when he was governor. Mary Faulk, who headed three major agencies for Gardner. After her divorce from Larry Faulk, Booth’s old rival, she married Chase Riveland, Booth’s director of corrections. A.N. “Bud” Shinpoch, a hard-nosed old liberal legislator who became director of the Department of Revenue, then attempted to “de-layer” the Department of Social & Health Services. Richard A. Davis, whom Booth named director of Labor & Industries. Joe Dear, Davis’ whiz kid assistant, later the agency’s director. Isiah Turner, named to head the Department of Employment Security. The Gardner administration’s leading African American, Turner departed in a scandal. Dan Grimm, the bright young chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee. Dixy Lee Ray, Washington’s controversial 17th governor. (1977-1981) Amos Reed, Riveland’s predecessor as head of Corrections. Gardner pushed him out. Dan McDonald, the Republican floor leader in the State Senate. Dick Thompson, who first headed the Department of Community Development; later Gardner’s governmental operations director. Norm Maleng, the highly regarded King County Prosecutor who sought the GOP nomination for governor in 1988. Bob Williams, the “gadfly” Republican legislator from Longview who defeated Maleng, only to be crushed by Gardner. Chris Gregoire, the future two-term governor whom Gardner named director of the Department of Ecology. Mike Murphy, a Grays Harbor County commissioner who was one of Gardner’s earliest supporters. Booth urged him to apply for the job of Wildlife director. Curt Smitch, the Gardner staffer who got the job Murphy wanted. Charles Z. Smith, Gardner’s first Washington Supreme Court appointee. The widely respected former prosecutor, judge and law professor was the court’s first ethnic minority. Joe King, the lanky speaker of the House. He liked Booth but questioned his political moxie. Ralph Munro, Washington’s ebullient secretary of state and co-chairman of the 1989 Centennial with First Lady Jean Gardner. Cynthia Robin Perkins, the young woman Booth met in Geneva and fell in love with. Married in 2001 after his divorce from Jean, they divorced in 2008. Dan Evans, the three-term Republican governor who teamed up with Gardner to promote a funding plan to boost higher education. Dr. Tom Preston, an “aid-in-dying” activist who was a stalwart of the Death With Dignity campaign. Daniel Bergner, the writer whose 2007 profile of Gardner in The New York Times Magazine created a stir. Doug Gardner, the governor’s born-again Christian son. Gail Gardner, the governor’s daughter. Arline Hinckley, the social worker who was one of Death With Dignity’s leading voices. Duane French, the initiative’s most eloquent foe. Chris Carlson, the poster-child for the opponents. He was still alive and well some five years after he was told he had only six months. Introduction If you go to see Booth Gardner, never arrive empty handed. You must stop by Frisko Freeze, a classic 1950’s drive-in just a few blocks from his condo in Tacoma. You order him a Doubleburger and a medium Coke, hold the cheese, lots of mustard – $5.25 worth of gourmet fast food. If it’s a drizzly day, noontime customers huddle under the eaves as they wait, savoring the aromas wafting from inside: Patties sizzling on an old short-order grill, french fries burbling in their baskets, mustard and relish being slathered on buns. One day in the winter of 2009, a writer on an important errand encountered a burly young man in a Seattle Mariners jacket. They struck up a conversation about baseball and burgers: “You know who really likes Frisko Freeze?” the young man said. “No. Who?” “The governor.” “Chris Gregoire?” “No! Booth Gardner.” It’s been 17 years since he was Washington’s governor, but everyone still knows his name. In 1983, however, when he decided to challenge a sitting governor, he was little known outside Pierce County where he grew up. His brain trust put “Booth Who?” on a button and it became the catchiest campaign slogan in state history. He was handily elected twice and could have had a third term – maybe more – or a seat in the U.S. Senate. In terms of sheer popularity, his only rival to date is the late Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, who served in Congress for 42 years. From his first campaign, an upset victory for the State Senate in 1970, to his last, a 2008 landslide that saw Washington become the second state in the nation to allow “Death With Dignity,” Booth Gardner has been a relentlessly analyzed collection of contradictions. Actually, it all began much earlier. Exceptionally bright, Booth was also puckishly charming and an excellent athlete. He quickly became a big man on campus when he enrolled at the University of Washington in 1954. Curiously, he didn’t quite fit at the frat house and soon moved in with his aunt and uncle. His beloved Aunt Lou promptly sent him to the Parks Department for a part-time job because he was underfoot. First assigned to 1 Yesler Terrace, a housing project, he began filling in at the other playfields in Seattle’s largely African American Central Area. To the surprise of many, especially the handful of people who knew he was from a wealthy family, the new white guy was a huge hit with the black kids. There was something about him – his boyish smile, the way he looked you in the eye and listened so intently. His squeaky voice was even engaging. The Central Area was an epiphany: “I realized I could make a difference in people’s lives.” Coaching and supervising led to tutoring and impromptu field trips. Booth often brought a carload of kids home to Aunt Lou’s for mac and cheese. If a kid didn’t have football shoes, Booth bought them, along with a lot of bats, balls and jerseys. When he heard that Ernie Rose’s athletic equipment store was for sale in the wake of the owner’s death, he decided to buy it. One of the salesmen, Stan Dray, was running the business for Rose’s widow.