Sutherland clings to hope in lands commissioner race

Democrat Peter Goldmark and his environmental backers have declared victory in the state lands commissioner race. But not so fast, says Republican incumbent Doug Sutherland.

"I'm looking at the numbers just like a lot of people. There is still a whole bunch out there to be counted. We’re not going to do anything until we see a whole lot more counted," Sutherland said this morning by telephone, refusing to concede.

As of today, Sutherland trailed Goldmark by 17,302 votes. The tally on the Office of the Secretary of State's web site is 1,256,076 votes for Goldmark and 1,238,774 for Sutherland.

That's a lot of votes to make up with approximately a half-million left to count. Goldmark had campaigned by raising questions about Sutherland’s management, using slides in the Chehalis River basin last December as examples of poor management of lands.

Sutherland declined to comment further.