While the uncertain results in WA-08 are making it difficult for me to celebrate Tuesday’s election, I’m taking more than a little joy in the outstanding performance of Peter Goldmark in the race for Commissioner of Public Lands.
Goldmark currently leads Republican incumbent Doug Sutherland by 28,592, or about 1.5% of the total ballots cast, and while nobody has officially called this race yet, a look at the county by county results suggests it’s pretty much in the bag. That’s because a significantly greater proportion of the ballots remaining come from counties which Goldmark won, thus even if late absentees trend conservative, as many election observers expect, Goldmark should easily maintain or expand his margins.
For example, assuming all counties turnout at 85%, and the remaining ballots split along the same lines as those that have already been counted, Goldmark would finish with a margin of about 90,000 votes, or greater than 3 percent. He likely won’t finish quite that way, but that’s an awful lot of ground for a late conservative trend to make up.
So congratulations Peter on a great campaign. I’m proud to have played my own little part in your victory.
Tip of the hat to the ladies for voting down the leering, mouth-breathing, groper Sutherland. I trust right now Sutherland is commiserating with David Irons Jr.
Goldmark is a good man and will do an excellent job.
Yay!
Peter Goldmark will work to improve both the condition of our public lands and the small, rural towns who’s livelihoods depend on those lands.
Very exciting win. Maybe he’ll do well enough to challenge Doc Hastings in a couple of years. That would be truly sweet.
Dear trolls,
You might as well not bother to reply to my comment at #2. For at least the last 20 years Republicans have had a laser like focus on extracting any and all wealth from OUR public lands and putting that wealth in the hands of a hands of a small group of non-rural robber-barons like the Weyerhaeuser family. The health of OUR public lands and the communities that depend on those lands for there well being and quality of life have never factored into the thinking and policies of the (current) Republican Party.
It’s good to see Peter pulling ahead. I hope that trend holds.
Goldmark probably will net another 4,000+ votes in Snohomish County, which still has over 100,000 uncounted ballots, and the race is breaking about 52%-48% for Goldmark there.
@3 Pete doesn’t live in Hastings district, and I believe he didn’t even carry his own county in his race against McMorris (#5).
I personally emailed Pete TWICE during the campaign, with no response.
At a meeting with 2 DNR personnel last evening, they indicated that Pete has made no attempt to meet them or even visit them (pertaining to the Ellensberg office and Ahtanum state forest).
@2 and 4, If this means increased recreation for ALL users, this will be a good thing. As one who has seen his hometown hammered by a mill closure, it is a painful thing. Tourism has helped, but does not pay the wages that a mill does. Now tourism is in danger in some of these areas from the anti-motorized wingnut sector of our population (S senator Adam Kline for example), most of whom do not share rural values and traditions.
BUT, If Pete works with the local populations around these state lands, he will no doubt gain a majority in rural areas the next time around.
Have a nice day,
Farmer Fred
this is good news
Damn, now we don’t get to hear and read about the hilarious stories of his inappropriate and offensive behaviour toward female employees. The old man was a barrel of laughs!!
Keeping my fingers crossed too! Reading about the clearcuts and resultant flooding for all those poor people and their livestock (I would like to know what the results end up to be in THAT area)! The flooding pretty much convinced me to vote for Goldmark.
But Goldy’s article of the groping incidents – while the press stayed silent – now THAT was the icing on the cake (er, on my ballot)!
Goldy, I would never have given a second thought to the race for that position if it hadn’t been for your post months ago about Peter Goldmark. It got me curious so I looked into it more, and decided to agree with you. So of course I then had to let all of my family members know why I was voting for Goldmark, and so they voted for him too. (They generally go with my reasoning because otherwise they’d have to do the research themselves.) Anyway, you can take credit for at least half a dozen votes from that first post. (P.S. I’m thrilled that he won!)