A member of the Democratic Party, Gardner previously served as a state senator, representing the 26th district from 1971 to 1973, and was the Pierce County Executive prior to his tenure as governor.

Born in Tacoma, Gardner attended Clover Park Junior High in Lakewood before graduating from Lakeside School in Seattle.

[5] While governor, Gardner signed into law a health care program that provided state medical insurance for the working poor.

He helped develop land-use and growth-management policies that made Washington an early environmental leader, steered hundreds of millions of dollars of increased spending toward state universities, increased standardized testing in public education, and improved legal protections for gay people.

The law went into effect on June 11 of that year, and make record store retailers and their employees criminally liable for selling such music to anyone under the age of 18.