After nearly nine years as someone's press secretary, you get to know them well, personally and professional.

Such is the case with Chris Carlson and Gov. Cecil Andrus.

Carlson spent 10 years working for Andrus. Speeches, releases, statements, they all came through Carlson. He came to know the man well who was elected four times as Idaho's governor.

Oh, the stories he could tell.

Which, he decided to tell.

Carlson's book, "Cecil Andrus: Idaho's Greatest Governor," published by Caxton Press in Idaho Falls came out recently.

Over nearly 300 pages, he offers stories that back up the book's title. He even dedicates it "To the thousands of Idahoans who voted for Cecil Andrus over the years and who saw their faith rewarded through the accomplishments that made him the greatest governor in Idaho history."

Carlson, wearing his red St. Louis Cardinals cap as he sits for an interview, takes pride in noting that the book is in its second printing and has sold around 1,500 copies already.

"People that knew Andrus would hopefully recognize that, yeah, this book has captured the Cece that I know. And for people who have never met him, it would give them a good feel for the kind of exceptional person he is. I think I've succeeded," he said.

The 65-year-old Carlson was born in Kellogg. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in English and comparative religions, and earned a master's in English literature from Idaho State University in 1970.

He worked for the Kootenai school district in 1968-69 and coached basketball before working as a political reporter in Idaho and Washington, D.C.

"That's where I met Andrus," he said.

It was the beginning of a close relationship that saw Carlson serve as Andrus' communications director starting in 1972 when Andrus was Idaho's governor, to when he was the Secretary of Interior from 1977 to 1981.

Carlson later served on the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and was government affairs director for Kaiser Aluminum. He founded Gallatin Public Affairs firm in 1989 worked with Andrus there, too.

He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the 1990s, and then in 2005 he was also diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and given six months to live.

He chuckles that he's still around and jokes that at 65, he's entering the "brave new world of Medicare and supplemental plans."

"I'm still here. Whatever I'm doing, I'm doing something right," he said, smiling.

Today, he and his wife of 41 years, Carol, live near Medimont. He still fly fishes, writes columns for the St. Maries Gazette, often bemoaning the loss of great leaders in politics, and is working on a baseball book about his beloved Spokane Indians.

Despite the Parkinson's, despite the cancer, he remains upbeat, enthusiastic, about life and what it holds for him. He grins and laughs often as he tells the stories of his favorite Democrat, Cecil Andrus.

"I've just been very fortunate," he said.

Andrus: Idaho's Greatest Governor is $17.95 and available at Hastings in Coeur d'Alene and the Paperhouse in St. Maries.

Why did you write a book about Cecil Andrus?

I spend almost nine years with Gov. Andrus. I had a unique perspective, more so than other people. I helped him put together the first book that he did, largely, found Joel Connelly to be the co-writer and worked quite closely with him.

I always felt that that book, which came out in 1998, "Cecil Andrus: Politics, western style," was more illustrative of how he approached certain issues and how he worked to solve problems.

In many respects, I felt the book had not captured the personality of the governor and what made him such a unique and attractive political figure. I just felt the longer I've been exposed to and involved in the world of politics, the more extraordinary I realized he is and how relatively rare an office holder he is. There are not many like him. There are few and they stand out. He came from a relatively ordinary background and became an extraordinary successful office holder. I tried to answer the question, how did that come about.

Have you had a chance to sit down and read your book?

Oh yeah. It's half of what I originally wrote. I had to laugh. I sent the initial draft to the governor. He sends back a note, 'Cut it in half. Too dull, too boring. You know there's no sex or scandals in my background. Nobody's going to want to read this much.' I really did cut out a lot of stories. There was some good material left on the cutting room floor.

What's response been to the book?

As I've traveled around to book signing and things like that, the book has promoted so many other stories. You begin to realize how many lives he touched.

Once people realize I've written this book, they almost unanimously tell me their own favorite Cece Andrus story.

I wanted to fill in that gap, and try to answer the question and I just felt that through my experiences and telling anecdotes and stories about him, particularly once he was in the governorship and it will give people a better feel for the governor.

So how did Andrus go from such an ordinary background to, as you say, being Idaho's greatest governor?

First of all, the God-given gifts that he has are extraordinary. That includes intelligence. He's always been kind of modest how smart he is because he only had one year in college. He is truly one of the smartest people I have ever come across.

He has an uncanny ability to look over the horizon. He has an uncanny ability to understand how different forces are moving. I say it's akin to being able to play three-dimensional chess. He knows in the world of politics a move here what the consequences will be over there.

Invariably, when it comes to politics, he's miles ahead of you.

What was he like to work for?

He's a very demanding person. He has his no surprises rule. You surprise him, something shows up in the paper he should have known about, that's a hanging offense. Because he's a good teacher, he tolerates a mistake now and then, but you've got to learn from your mistake and you better not make it again. I was fortunate. I kept learning. I'm not saying I didn't make some mistakes.

I ended up being the one that worked for him longer than any other aide.

We've continued to work together and talk frequently about politics. We both love to fish. I'm not a hunter like he is, but I sure try to be a better fly fisherperson.

One of the things I really envy about him, he's a natural teacher. He knows how to teach in a way that doesn't demean you or insult you, but it's clearly a lesson.

What else about Andrus do you admire?

The other thing that really comes out for his early years is kind of the school of hard knocks, the necessity of working hard. It was a hard-scrabble existence on the family farm. He and his brothers learned to hunt and fish early because it was supplementing the family larder. He always was working. I think he could have had a fairly successful athletic career. He had a lot of natural athletic ability.

He matured very quickly. He had to. He was 18 when he got married and Carol was 16. The odds of that kind of marriage lasting are slim and none. Yet, almost 60 years later, they're still married. So he had to grow up fast.

What made him an effective governor?

He always had this God-given ability when he talks to someone, to make them feel like they are the most important person in the world to him at that moment. He's not one of these politicians who goes into a room, shaking hands, saying hello how are you, and he's looking past you to see if there's somebody more influential, more important. And you know it. People know that. You never had that feeling with Andrus.

What was the relationship like between you and Andrus?

I think it evolved over the years. It went from employer, employee, to in many respects, he's a surrogate father now for me. I lost my dad when I was 14.

I've had three exceptional bosses over the years who became mentors.

With Andrus, it really has evolved into almost a father/son relationship. He calls me kid, I call him dad. I point out in the book there are other surrogate sons. He's got three lovely daughters.

How has Parkinson's affected your life?

Well, it's a limiting factor. I remember I was sitting in a movie and it was kind of cold in the theater and my left hand started shaking. Then I noticed, I used to jog a lot, I wasn't swinging my left arm much. I went to see a neurologist, he runs me through a whole bunch of tests. He says, 'Yeah, you've got Parkinson's. You are in the early, early stages. I am absolutely amazed that you're so in tune with your body that you're even in here.'

It mercifully has moved very slowly. It's still on the left side. You do all the reading and research. I am in the same dosage, instead of three times a day it's four times a day. So I've been able to manage it very successful. I try to time my medicines because it's hell trying to tie a fly if the left hand is shaking.

I've managed it quite well. I think the thing that probably bothers me more than anything, I have really vivid dreams. I'll get in fights and a couple times I've punched my dear wife in the middle of the night. So I wake up four, five or six times a night. I probably don't get as much sleep as I should or could.

And you have to deal with cancer, too?

I remember the neurologist saying to me, 'Chris, if there's one silver lining to this, people with Parkinson's rarely if ever get cancer.' So a few years later I picked up the phone, 'I want you to know you have a very extraordinary patient.'

I got this diagnosis, I lost a lot of weight, I went through five embolism procedures, busting up the tumors on my liver. I remember I went to get a second opinion, I sent all my stuff to the world's premier institution for treating this form of cancer, they refused to see me. They looked at the CAT scans and they looked at the MRIs and they said, 'We don't want to waste your time or ours.' That kind of pissed me off. I ended up at Huntsman down at Salt Lake City, brand new, didn't have a reputation yet, excellent facility. I ended up doing an experimental procedure. My numbers were off the chart and it looked like I was well on my way to the happy hunting ground. And things turned around, stabilized, counts came down steadily. My chemotherapy once a month is a shot I take. $11,000 a month is what shot costs.

Can you summarize, in a nutshell, a reason why you believe Andrus was a great governor?

It's a combination of a lot of variables that come together. He cares about people. They know it. They respond to it. That's why he's the most beloved political figure that's ever walked across the Idaho landscape.