Newcomer mounts challenge for public lands position

The primary election results for the Commissioner of Public Lands position shows that Democrats showed up to vote in fine form.

In fact, they may have had to form multiple lines.

Rep. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds, received 362,618 votes, while incumbent Doug Sutherland, R-Lacey, received 250,731. The Libertarian candidate, Steve Layman, received 7,352 votes.

Cooper, a Shoreline firefighter, received more than 100,000 more votes than the incumbent, and said he was encouraged by the number of people who voted on the Democratic side of the ticket. He said the high voter turnout shows that people are ready for a change – all the way down the ticket.

“People in the state want a change in leadership,” Cooper said. “I expected to do well but was a little surprised and encouraged by how high the numbers were.”

Sutherland said considering the number of votes given to Democratic candidates statewide, his primary results are somewhat meaningless. The Democrats had a more interesting series of primary challenges, which compelled them to participate in the election, he said.

“It is pretty hard to figure out how many people just didn’t vote because they were upset, or didn’t vote because it didn’t mean anything,” Sutherland said. “When you consider it is around 30-35 percent of the total vote, it doesn’t mean an awful lot.”

Cooper said voters want a Public Lands Commissioner that is going to harvest in a way that not only generates money for school trust funds, but protects drinking water and salmon habitat. He said his vision is to harvest in a way that is sustainable, while at the same time protecting habitat.

Cooper said he decided to run after becoming frustrated with the direction of the department, especially after the end of the legislative session.

“The department was going backward to the days of clear-cut and over-harvesting,” Cooper said. “I felt we needed to take a new direction and protect old growth forest and harvest in a way that protects wildlife habitat and drinking water.”

Cooper said the race is really about whether the natural resource management reflects the values of the public or the timber and oil companies and polluters.

Sutherland said voters want someone who knows how to manage with a sensible balance, such as maximizing revenue while managing the lands in environmentally sensitive ways.

“I think they want someone who is trustworthy and does what they say they are going to do,” Sutherland said. “I have a long history of that.”

D.J. Wilson, a political science teacher at Edmonds Community College, said what was seen in this race is a prime example of how high voter turnout can impact races.

“The idea is that as the turnout increases, in this type of year, it will probably help the Democrats,” Wilson said. “In this race, it will probably help Mike Cooper significantly.”

Wilson said the race for Commissioner of Public Lands is not high profile. However, voters turning out for the presidential race are likely to follow that party moving down the ballot.

Second, the people that are turning out to vote are likely blue collar workers and young people, who made the decision to vote because they are unhappy with the Bush administration. Voter turnout is usually 77 percent, but this year Wilson said 82 percent turnout is expected. The additional 5-6 percent are people who have not voted before, and are likely motivated by economic reasons and the war on terror.

“A lot more people are voting this year because of what the Bush administration has done in the last four years,” Wilson said. “The blue collar are likely to be Democratic voters.”

Wilson also said that one of Cooper’s key issues has been Sutherland’s position as co-chair of the Bush campaign in Washington.

Wilson does, however, caution about reading too much into the primary election results, as one of the main reasons compelling Democrats to vote in the primary was to narrow the Christine Gregoire and Ron Sims race, with not a lot of impetus for Republicans to vote.