SEATTLE — King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove has defeated former U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler within the race to change into Washington’s subsequent commissioner of public lands.
As of 5:30 p.m. Thursday, about 53.1% of ballots had been solid for Democrat Upthegrove, in comparison with Republican Herrera Beutler’s 46.9%.
Greater than a 3rd of the votes for Upthegrove got here from King County, the place over 67% of voters solid a poll for him. Greater than 50% of voters in Jefferson, Thurston, Kitsap, Whatcom, Snohomish, Island and San Juan counties additionally voted for Upthegrove.
Upthegrove ran partly on defending extra older state forests. In a cellphone name Thursday evening, he celebrated the state’s “strong conservation values.”
“It’s part of what makes our state special,” Upthegrove stated. “I ran on an agenda protecting clean air, clean water and habitat and expanding recreational opportunities, improving wildfire and those are commonsense issues that resonate with people.”
Upthegrove stated he can be the primary out LGBTQ+ statewide government workplace holder in Washington and was reflecting on “the LGBT leaders that came before me and paved away for people of all backgrounds to be elected to office,” calling his election a “meaningful milestone.”
Herrera Beutler conceded the race. “Tonight, I called Dave Upthegrove to congratulate him on a well-run, issues-focused campaign and to wish him success,” she stated in an announcement.
The commissioner of public lands helms the state Division of Pure Sources and oversees efforts to steward and earn money from 2.6 million acres of the state’s waters, about 1 million acres of rangelands and a couple of million acres of forests — with about half put aside for habitat and the remainder accessible for logging.
The commissioner additionally leads the state’s largest firefighting pressure, with obligations overlaying 13 million acres of personal and public lands.
Upthegrove will succeed Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, who has held the put up since 2017.
Upthegrove supplied a imaginative and prescient for leveraging the company’s belief lands to help in delivering on the state’s promise of an electrical energy provide freed from greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2045. He promised to bolster current efforts to cut back wildfire dangers and restore forest well being. He has stated he needs everybody to have entry to leisure alternatives on state lands.
Among the many different proposals for the huge function, entrance and middle was Upthegrove’s plan to pause industrial gross sales of an estimated almost 80,000 acres of older, structurally complicated forests. These usually are not protected old-growth forests however slightly what have been dubbed “legacy forests” or the outdated development of tomorrow.
Environmental advocates have been calling for the safety of those second-growth forests since 2021. These forests’ massive bushes retailer extra carbon than youthful bushes on brief harvest rotations. In addition they supply crucial habitat and assist preserve stream flows.
Herrera Beutler centered her marketing campaign round a pledge to cut back the danger of devastating wildfires by means of extra lively forest administration whereas criticizing Upthegrove’s plan as one that might damage forest well being, rural communities and income from timber gross sales for faculties and different important companies. She had stated forests that had been put aside and untouched turned tinderboxes.
She as an alternative stated she wouldn’t change a lot, not directing the company to place up any extra or any much less timber on the market.
The Washington Secretary of State’s Workplace estimates greater than 560,000 ballots stay to be counted as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Greater than 190,000 votes separated Upthegrove and Herrera Beutler.