Tough-Guy Talmadge

Phil Talmadge never mentions Gov. Gary Locke by name. He doesn't need to. Everybody in the room at the King County Democrats' winter meeting in the Seattle Hilton knows Talmadge is talking about Locke when he says, "Everywhere I go, people say the same thing—the Democratic Party has no policies and no soul. We seem tired, distracted, and aimless. What does the Democratic Party stand for?

"The same refrains stir around the state: There is no leadership. Tim Eyman is the real governor. Why should we trust you?

"Leadership and trust are connected. Trust in government is not possible unless our leaders lead. Our party will not regain its soul unless, and until, we are no longer afraid to lead."

The Democrats give Talmadge a standing ovation after his searing indictment of the weakness of their party's incumbent governor of the past seven years.

The coming legislative session, which begins on Monday, does not promise to increase Locke's popularity among Democrats. Faced with a $2 billion deficit, the governor proposed a no-new-taxes biennial budget that would take away health insurance from 60,000 poor people, dismantle popular education initiatives that reduced class size and increased teacher pay, lay off 2,500 state workers, and close state parks. Meanwhile, transportation solutions are stalled after voters rejected a gas-tax increase—the campaign for which was headed by Locke.

A former legislator and a former state Supreme Court justice, Talmadge, 50, thinks this political context gives him an opening for a vigorous challenge to the incumbent in the 2004 Democratic primary. Last summer, Talmadge became the first major-party candidate to declare for governor. For his part, Locke has not decided whether to run for a third term.

The primary is 19 months away. A bit early? Not if you've been planning to be governor, as Talmadge's wife recalls, since high school.

CRACKING SKULLS

Talmadge's life story certainly reads like a governor's r鳵m鮠In 1952, he was born in Seattle to a schoolteacher father and a Boeing-worker mother. From grade school on, Talmadge excelled academically, graduating from West Seattle High as a National Merit Scholar. He went to Yale and, after his freshman year, married his high-school sweetheart, Darlene. Thirty-two years later, they have five children, ages 15 to 31, and two grandchildren. They live in the West Seattle house Darlene grew up in, just six blocks from Talmadge's homestead.

After graduating magna cum laude from Yale, Talmadge went to the University of Washington law school. In 1979, two years after finishing, he was elected to the state Senate as a brash, 26-year-old whiz kid and served 16 years under four governors. He chaired both the Judiciary Committee and the Health Care Committee. Allies and enemies alike acknowledge Talmadge as one of the most intellectually gifted politicians they have known.

He was no slouch when it came to passing legislation, either.

"I don't think there was a senator who passed more legislation than Phil," says Democrat Jerry Hughes, a former state senator from Spokane. "He was in on all the major legislation."

IN AN INTERVIEW, Talmadge touches on a few highlights: Just a few months before his first election, the freighter Chavez hit the West Seattle drawbridge, and a new span had to be built. Talmadge co-sponsored the legislation that helped build the higher bridge we drive today. After that, his initiatives included the creation of the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority, tough drug laws, indefinite confinement for sexual predators, tort reform, AIDS testing, Seattle's new First Avenue South bridge, campaign-finance reform, and universal health insurance (Republicans dismantled it when they regained the majority). In policy terms, he was a liberal with a law-and-order streak. Above all, Talmadge was pragmatic, eschewing ideological purity in favor of legislative accomplishment.

Politically, Talmadge was known as one tough bastard who got things done and didn't care who he hurt in the process. In the 1980s, he terrorized people so much that someone printed up a button that read, "I've been Philled." The buttons sprouted on the lapels of lawmakers and lobbyists. Those who remember that era say he was a bully and that he had a vicious edge.

State Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane, who served with Talmadge on the Judiciary Committee at the time, told the young bull to pull in his horns. Talmadge recalls McCaslin telling him, "You haven't listened enough. You have caused these buttons to appear." McCaslin explained to Talmadge that his aggressive, in-your-face style was getting in the way of his policy goals. Talmadge says, "I thought, 'He's right,' and I backed off."

His opponents did not notice a big personality change, however. Says Dan McDonald, a Republican former state senator from Bellevue: "You want somebody [as governor] who has ideas and who will move them forward aggressively, but that requires people to work with other folks. The jury is still out on that part of it" for Talmadge. McDonald thinks Talmadge's personality limited his effectiveness in the Senate. "It's hard for him to deal with lesser lights, and that's most of us."

Some of Talmadge's supporters, however, say you have to crack a few skulls to get results. "His elbows can get terrifically sharp," admits state Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Seattle, who has endorsed Talmadge's gubernatorial bid. "I don't see that as a flaw. It might be refreshing to have that in a governor."