YAKIMA – Three days after Washington voters cast their ballots, incumbent Doug Sutherland pulled away from state Rep. Mike Cooper to win another term as state lands commissioner.
Cooper, the favorite of environmental groups, Democratic Party loyalists and labor unions, had been holding out hope that thousands of absentee and provisional ballots in King and Snohomish counties would allow him to catch up to Sutherland.
Those ballots were tallied Friday, and Sutherland maintained his 50 percent to 47 percent lead over Cooper. Libertarian Steve Layman received 3 percent of the vote.
“The people of this state have confirmed our management of these resources,” Sutherland said.
Cooper said Friday he had not yet had a chance to evaluate the new numbers and probably would not have a further comment until Monday.
“I recognize we are trailing and it’s a long uphill battle, but I want to look at what the trends are, carefully evaluate them, and then look at the numbers for Monday before I make a decision on whether or not to concede,” he said.
As head of the Department of Natural Resources, the lands commissioner oversees logging on about 2 million acres of state forests and regulates timber cutting on 8 million acres of privately owned land.
Money from the state’s timber sales goes into a trust that pays for school construction, libraries, hospitals, county services and other needs. That requires the lands commissioner to strike a balance between maximizing revenue for the trust and protecting the environment.
Sutherland’s backers maintained he has done a good job of striking that balance. The moderate Republican was elected to the post in 2000 when he was Pierce County executive and has won over a number of conservationists.
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