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Insider Perspective: Gary Chandler Brings Wisdom and Experience to AWB |
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Written On: January/February 2004 |
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Written By: By Paul Schlienz |
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Gary Chandler brings a wealth of experience to his job. Before becoming vice president of government affairs at AWB, he was a county commissioner, legislator, lobbyist, farmer, small businessman and cop - a modern day jack of all trades.
The Chandler family spent most of its life in Moses Lake. They moved from Wenatchee in 1958, only one year after the region was first opened to irrigated farming. The lush farms that line I-90 in Grant County did not exist during Chandler’s childhood. Instead, U.S. 10 cut through sagebrush, tumbleweeds and shifting sand dunes pock marked with small, carp-filled ponds called potholes.
“It was pretty desolate,” Chandler remembers. “It was very dry, hot and dusty with temperatures hitting 115 degrees on occasion. In grade school, when they’d see a dust storm coming you’d run home and close the windows. Suddenly you were in the dust storm and you couldn’t see anything. The next day when we went back to school we had to dig all the tumbleweeds out so we could go to class.”
The Chandlers: Self-Made People
Chandler’s father, Glyn, a self-made man, began as a migrant farm worker in Wenatchee and eventually purchased an orchard. Once in Moses Lake he invested in a chain of agricultural implement dealerships and managed its Quincy and Moses Lake stores. He also purchased five acres in Moses Lake. From an early age, the Chandler kids learned the value of hard work.
“I can remember when I was seven years old and driving the tractor,’ Gary recalls. “My early years revolved around going to work on weekends and at night, sweeping up floors, cleaning up around the shop, picking up tools and whatever I could do as a young kid.”
By ninth grade Chandler was driving a tractor to school and was actually asked by the principal not to drive it into the school parking lot.
“So I parked about two blocks away by a service station and walked from there to school.”
Chandler started doing custom farming and lawn and garden work with the tractor when he was in ninth grade. In high school he ran three bailers and a couple of sloggers and hired other kids to work with him.
In the summer, he was a mechanic for the parks department and could tear a Wisconsin engine apart, rebuild it and put it in some of the smaller tractors.
After high school, Chandler attended Big Bend Community College. During his second year at the college, he married his wife, Deborah. Around this time, he and his father bought a farm together where they produced corn silage and raised approximately 1,000 feeder cattle. Chandler also continued working at the family dealership and did custom farming. From 1973 to 1986, he was also a reserve officer with the Moses Lake Police Department.
Moses Lake Economy Diversifies
Over the years, Moses Lake’s economy greatly changed. “When I was a kid the economy was strictly agricultural,” Chandler remembers. “Slowly it became more diversified. Today, Moses Lake’s economy is probably 50 percent agricultural, 50 percent industrial.”
As the economy became more diversified, the small farms of Chandler’s youth began consolidating into larger units. Chandler and his father saw the handwriting on the wall and shut down their implements business.
In the meantime, the Chandler name became associated with Grant County politics. First, Glyn Chandler was elected to the local school board in the late 1970s. In 1984, he was elected to the Legislature as a Republican.
Gary followed his father into politics first as an appointee to the Moses Lake Planning Commission in 1985 and on the Grant County Planning Commission in 1986. In 1988, he was elected to the Grant County Commission. His brother David also became a local elected official.
“The local talk radio station had a program called ‘The Friday Fun Bunch’ which would go to a different business or home at 6:30 in the morning,” Chandler said. “Sometimes they’d get my father, brother, and me together, have breakfast at my house, and call us the Kennedys of Grant County, because all three of us were involved in politics.
“Dad was very pleased that I got involved. He enjoyed politics a great deal. It was a very big part of his life. He taught me that if you serve the people and listen to the people, then they’ll treat you well.”
Following his father’s death in 1990, Chandler applied to be his appointed successor to the state house. Although he did not receive the appointment, he ran for his father’s seat in the 1990 general election and won.
As a legislator, Chandler became known for his involvement in issues such as water rights. Like his father, he became a strong advocate for a high speed rail line to connect Seattle with Ellensburg, Moses Lake and Spokane. It was Chandler’s hope that a speedy rail connection with Seattle would bring economic growth to eastern Washington and the abandoned Larson Air Force Base.
Keeping Roots in Small Business and Agriculture
Throughout his political career, Chandler never forgot his roots in agriculture and small business.
“I think one of the things that’s lacking in the Legislature today are legislators who have a background in agriculture,” Chandler observed.
“As a small businessman, I know what it’s like when you write out a payroll paycheck or when you write out that B&O check and look at your checkbook and see there’s little or nothing left over for you and your family.”
Chandler Fights Term Limits
“I always said that the people would term limit me if I wasn’t doing the job. Then, in 2001, I was nominated to be Region 10 EPA director. I didn’t get appointed, but it prompted me to realize there’s life after the Legislature.”
As he mulled over the possibility of a career change, Chandler was approached by AWB President Don Brunell who offered him the position of Vice President of Governmental Affairs.
“I knew AWB, worked with their lobbyists, knew Don Brunell and really respected him. So when Don offered me a job, I had no doubt whatsoever about accepting it.”
“I think my career as a legislator helps me be a better lobbyist. As a legislator, I worked in a bipartisan way. As a lobbyist, my job is to work with all legislators to get them to support positions that create jobs and help employers survive.”
In 2003, Chandler was instrument in forming the Coalition of Washington Business Organizations which is more commonly called COWBO.
“As a legislator I felt the business community would be stronger if they got together and spoke with a common voice.”
That happened in late 2002 when Chandler pulled 14 business associations together under COWBO.
Chandler looks forward to the 2004 legislative session. Among his top priorities is making the Priorities of Government and Price of Government (POG) budgeting, which served the state so well in 2003, a permanent part of state budgets by carving it into stone as a statute. He is also focused on keeping the state economically competitive.
“If you give people an opportunity to go back to work, the revenues the state depends on for other services will come in. If we’re not competitive and we lose jobs, those revenues fall off because people aren’t working and business either lay people off, move or close their doors.”
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