State Senator Kevin Van de Wege has announced his candidacy to run for the Commissioner of Public Lands in the Department of Natural Resources. Hilary Franz, who is the current head, is running for governor. She’ll be stepping down from that role.
I was part of the People For Puget Sound team that is mentioned in the article that awarded Kevin the Environmentalist of the Year for Puget Sound. He deserved it for shepherding the Rescue Tug at Neah Bay to pass, an issue that took over 10 years to get funded.
As to heading DNR, I think that Kevin will instantly get the respect of the firefighters, but likely will not be the voice of carbon capture that Ms. Franz has been. However, Ms. Franz has elicited a lot of controversy from the environmental community on the Peninsula over that issue among others and will not be missed. It will be interesting to see who supports her from this area over the AG, Bob Ferguson. Certainly, this blog has already stated that we support Ferguson, as Ms. Franz has on numerous occasions pleaded ignorance of controversial issues that she herself has signed off on.
Van de Wege on shown himself willing to listen to opposing sides to his opinions and has made course corrections in the past, most notably on the fire retardants issue that has been before the legislature over the last decade. He originally was opposed to banning the chemicals but after being shown the international studies and understanding he wasn’t being asked to go out on a limb alone on this, he reversed course and championed the issue. For those reasons we support his effort and endorse him for the upcoming election.
There is a lot of rumor going around about who will run for Kevin’s office and other possible changes to the makeup of the Democratic representation here on the Peninsula. More to follow as we get solid stories to share.
District 24 senator eyes state lands role | Peninsula Daily News
Filed under: Government | Tagged: Carbon capture, DNR, election, Hilary Franz, Senator Kevin Van de Wege |
Al, we have typically agreed on candidates and issues in the past. Unfortunately, I cannot and will not endorse Kevin for this position that has always been mired in controversy over the detrimental effects of logging our forests. Kevin has always shown a bias toward the timber industry and, to my knowledge (though I could be incorrect), he’s never supported any conservation efforts of our wilderness.
Well, this is troubling. While I understand that he has certainly been supportive of the timber industry, he had done other positive steps in environmental issues. What specific conservation efforts has he not supported you are aware of?