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Delegate Seeks Own Political Path A familiar name takes on an unfamiliar role: Booth Gardner's son going to GOP convention By ANGELA GALLOWAY - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Doug Gardner is no Ron Reagan. Sure, there will be some obvious parallels when Gardner, a University Place tennis coach, heads to New York later this month. Reagan, of Seattle, is the son of the late two-term Republican president. Gardner is the son of former two-term Washington Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner. Like the younger Reagan did recently, Gardner plans to display his defiance of family political leanings at American politics' ultimate pageant: a national political convention. The younger Reagan was a marquee speaker before Democrats; the younger Gardner will be a Republican delegate. And like Reagan, Gardner has intensely personal interest in one of the most controversial issues in politics today: stem-cell research. Both of their fathers have suffered a debilitating disease that some scientists believe may be cured through such research. Reagan had a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease; Gardner has Parkinson's disease. The similarities end there. First, the two progenies are on opposite ends of the stem-cell debate. At last month's Democratic National Convention in Boston, Reagan was exclusively there as a primetime proponent of embryonic and other stem-cell medical research, only weeks after his father's death. President Bush opposes some stem-cell research. By contrast, the younger Gardner will bring a locally big name to a relative bit part. When the convention opens Aug. 30, Gardner will be among Washington's 38 alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention, on top of 41 regular delegates. That's among 2,509 delegates and 2,344 alternate delegates from all states. And although Gardner ranks embryonic stem-cell research -- specifically, blocking it -- among the top several issues facing American politics, it's not the paramount reason he's shelling out a couple of grand to go to New York in what promises to be a hot and hectic late summer week. It's about living down his partisan heritage -- and exploring his own political future. "I just needed to let people know that I didn't agree with the liberal policies that (my father) now embraces," said Gardner, 42. "I love Dad, and I'm with him as much as possible. I just wanted to let people know that I didn't stand with him on policy." Like many Republicans, Gardner describes himself as a fiscal conservative with a social conscience. He has volunteered in Africa and said he sometimes takes the oldest of his four children to help in programs for the homeless in Tacoma. He also thinks abortion and embryonic stem-cell research should be banned, although he does not object to research on non-embryonic cells. "It just kind of boils down to, is it a life or not?" Gardner said. "We have no right to go in and experiment on them. That truly is gruesome. "I believe that this is maybe ultimately trying to promote a different agenda -- that being cloning," Gardner added. To harvest embryonic stem cells, human embryos must be destroyed. Often, the embryos were created through in-vitro fertilization. Gardner said he and his father have largely agreed to disagree on this issue. "I just don't think he sees what's at stake," he said, referring to the destruction of embryos. "Dad is probably looking for any cure, and I am looking for a cure. I just don't want to cross that line. It could potentially find a cure for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, but at what cost? It's a prohibitive cost." Booth Gardner could not be reached for comment. Gardner, who served through 1992, also has a grown daughter who declined to be interviewed. Doug Gardner says he is close to his dad, and has grown closer as Gardner's gubernatorial past grows more distant. "It just has been so fun to spend time with him now," he said. "He is doing very well, and he's getting good care and he's taking his medicines as he should. And he's getting good exercise -- and he's being a great grandfather." And he concedes that his father's name had a major role in him being elected a Republican delegate. Although he's donated to some races and done a bit of volunteering, it's nothing on the scale of the hard-core activists who often make up a delegation, he said. "This is more of a reward for people who put in time," Gardner said. For his own votes, "75 percent of it was people just get a hoot of having the former Democratic governor's son go. A lot of it is just the novelty of it -- the contrast. "It definitely sends a message." P-I reporter Angela Galloway can be reached at 206-448-8333 or [log in to unmask] SOURCE: Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/185779_gardner11.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn