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Home | Office Holder | Booth Gardner
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His stepfather is Norton Clapp, one of the original owners of the Seattle Space Needle. In 1976, he owned the Tacoma Tides in its one year in the American Soccer League. In 1978 he co-owned the Colorado Caribous franchise in the NASL with Jim Guercio. In 1994, one year after his retirement, Gardner was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. In 2006 he unexpectedly announced his support for assisted suicide. In 2008 he filed and successfully spearheaded the campaign for Initiative 1000, Washington's Death With Dignity Act, which was closely modeled on Oregon's assisted dying law, and he remains involved in implementing the Act. Gardner has said that he supports going even further than the current Washington and Oregon laws, to eventually permit lethal prescriptions for people whose suffering is unbearable without the requirement that the sufferer have a terminal condition. In 2009, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, a short documentary film, was produced by Just Media and HBO, chronicling the Initiative 1000 campaign. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Gardner has also come out in support of eliminating Washington's WASL test, a standardized test required to graduate high school. |
