Yesterday, Commissioner of Public Lands, Doug Sutherland, wrote a letter to State Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, Vashon) saying he had not yet approved a controversial lease for mining company Glacier Norhtwest.
Nelson, an opponent of strip mining on Maury Island, sent a letter to Sutherland on Monday asking him to address what she had heard from concerned constituents: Mining company Glacier Northwest had reportedly told King County’s Dept. of Development and Environmental Services that Sutherland was going to issue a required aquatics lease to Glacier (right after the election) that would allow the company to proceed with its controversial mining expansion.
Republican Sutherland is up for reelection in a tight race against outspoken environmentalist, Peter Goldmark. Goldmark has made an issue out of Sutherland donors like Glacier Northwest who, Goldmark says, get political favors from Sutherland.
In his October 16 letter to Rep. Nelson, Sutherland repeated, in much stronger terms, the denial I reported here on Monday issued by Fran McNair, Sutherland’s Aquatic Lands Steward.
Sutherland writes: “As the proprietary manager of state owned aquatic lands, DNR [the Department of Natural Resources] is the decision making authority, not a lease applicant such as Glacier. Therefore any assurances that this prospective lessee may have directly or indirectly indicated concerning their final approval of a pending application should be considered purely speculative and without any merit.”
Is Glacier gonna remodel Sutherland’s house? Will Sutherland take payoffs from tribal casinos? Is Sutherland gonna hire a high school friend who became a real estate agent to supervise Glacier’s permit compliance? Does Sam Not A Plumber have his fingers in this deal? Did Sutherland’s agency lose track of 1300 sex offenders and register dogs to vote? Just askin’ ‘cuz you can’t trust Republicans.
Let’s just hope this guy gets buried at the polls.
Just watch Sutherland approve the lease on November 5. Especially if he’s not doing as well in the balloting as he expects.
And then, if he loses to Goldmark (please, please, please), he somehow gets a nice job with Glacier Northwest or some similar firm.
The Sutherland/Goldmark race got a mention in today’s Tacoma paper.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/.....10980.html
2+2=4 (At least that’s what I’m ‘speculating’.)
Josh blogs and blogs and still silent on the tale of getting fired at The Stranger.
Do tell, Josh!
You’ll feel much better!