Uh, later.
Today, I'm a little sad.
I am the last local journalist to say goodbye to Gov. Olene Walker, an act I've strenuously avoided. The news stories recapping her 14 months in office have been rolling out for weeks. Final interviews, in which the reporter tries to burrow into her psyche and unearth her retirement plans, have all been done. Photo essays capturing Walker's lighter side - cutting up with Bill Cosby, her face wind-whipped while speeding around a track on a go-cart - have tickled us.
All of it grand. Yet I still can't help but feel we let a good one slip away.
For just over a year Utah, yes Utah, basked in the glow of our first female governor. In that time, Olene Walker was breathing rarified air. As this year ends, only nine governors nationwide are women. Having been glaringly dumped by her party at last spring's state GOP convention, Walker leaves her post along with fellow Republican Gov. Judy Martz, who declined to run again in Montana.
Which leaves us with only seven women governors. Ouch.
I wish we were the highly evolved species I dream about, and that singling out good politicians by gender wouldn't matter anymore. "First women" stories should be an archaeological relic by now, but they are not. Gender in politics still matters. Walker made the best of it.
She was that rare animal who combined softness with steely smarts; self-deprecating humor with a serious work ethic and shrewdness. Think back to the first time you saw that public service ad, with Walker urging adults to read with a child 20 minutes a day. It was so loveably hokey, so real, with "First Lad" Myron Walker holding a baby on his lap, turning the pages and inviting us to "sound out the words" for a little one.
We loved that doting grandma image. Sometimes I feared we saw too much of it. Like most "first women," Walker had to balance a kind and nurturing persona with a "go to" image to prove she could run with the boys. What we didn't always see - in part because of a press corps charmed by her Aunt Bea moments - was the politician who understood how to hammer out a budget, and who knew how to compromise when necessary.
Yet she also knew there were times when giving in meant giving up, and she would do neither.
Walker stepped up early to oppose spent nuclear rods coming to Skull Valley and hotter levels of radioactive waste for Envirocare of Utah. Pressured to support the Carson Smith bill, which would have earmarked educational funding for children with special needs, she saw it for what it was - a back door attempt at tuition tax credits.
Her veto of the bill helped kill her at the convention, where she was thumped by a grumpy right wing.
We have precious few women who get far in politics. When they come along, we hold our breath and hope they can hang in.
Two of our more striking examples - Salt Lake City Mayor DeeDee Corradini and Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman - had the guts and the will for the task, but left office mired in scandal. In Walker, we had a woman tough and lovable, her compass seemingly pointed in the right direction, but too little time to prove it.
Sad.
hmullen@sltrib.com
