NPI interviews Peter Goldmark - a rancher who's ready to protect our public lands
This evening the Northwest Progressive Institute is pleased to announce the release of our first podcast for October 2008: an interview with Peter Goldmark, the Democratic nominee for the post of Commissioner of Public Lands. Peter took a break from shaking hands at last week's big rally with Joe Biden to talk to us about the progressive change he wants to bring to the Department of Natural Resources.
This episode is part of the Downballot Project, an effort by the Northwest Progressive Institute to cover races and ballot measures that have been overlooked or ignored by the traditional corporate media.
To subscribe to our podcast, plug our multimedia feed into your favorite aggregator - or click the below button to do so if you are an iTunes user.
Click the "Listen" link to hear the episode in your browser (Adobe Flash player required for playback), or read the transcription below.
Listen
Peter Goldmark: Ready to protect our public lands
ANDREW VILLENEUVE: Hello and welcome to the Northwest Progressive Institute’s first podcast for October 2008. I’m Andrew Villeneuve, the Executive Director of NPI, and I’m pleased to be your host for this episode.
The 2008 general election is just days away from coming to a close, and while the contests for president and governor have received significant attention from the traditional media, many downballot races haven’t, including the close competition for Commissioner of Public Lands between Democrat Peter Goldmark and incumbent Republican Doug Sutherland. The outcome of this race will decide who leads the Department of Natural Resources for the next four years.
The job is a serious responsibility, because DNR manages over five million acres of state-owned forests, wilderness, underwater slopes, and agricultural lands. It has an annual budget of over three hundred million dollars.
At a recent Democratic rally headlined by Senator Joe Biden, I had the opportunity to talk to Peter Goldmark about his candidacy for Commissioner of Public Lands. What follows is the audio of that entire interview, which runs just over five minutes.
ANDREW VILLENEUVE: Alright, so Peter, the race for Lands Commissioner is in its final stretches. How do you feel it is going?
PETER GOLDMARK: I feel the race is going really well. I am really indebted to all the support I am getting all across the state, from people in education, from farmers, ranchers, from labor, from Democrats, from some Republicans. The race is really strong right now.
ANDREW: How are your final advertisements being received?
PETER: Very well. We’ve got TV up here in the I-5 corridor, TV in Spokane, Eastern Washington... We just put up a new radio spot, which features a pilot who flies aerial tankers for fire retarding. And it’s a very, very strong commercial.
ANDREW: What are your chief criticisms of Doug Sutherland's performance as Commissioner?
PETER: That he’s beholden to the special interests. You can see that from his policies from the lax oversight on the Lewis County floods to the PDC reports that show that he gets over half of his dollars from the very industries he’s supposed to regulate. And that’s wrong, because it draws into [the race] the issue of conflict of interest. I know the voters don't like to see people – politicians - receiving a lot of money from the interests that they [are charged with overseeing].
ANDREW: What do you think of the endorsements that Sutherland has received, from like the Spokesman Review, which said he is a better candidate?
PETER: Well, the Spokesman-Review is an Eastern Washington newspaper and it’s a very conservative newspaper. I am not surprised that they picked the Republican member of the campaign. They are very favorable to Republicans. That’s very predictable, unfortunately.
ANDREW: Unfortunately. How are you being received in Eastern Washington, though, by the people?
PETER: Very well. They know I am a rancher. They know I care about their same values. They know that’s where I have grown up and lived all my life, and that I will work in interest of everybody and make sure that the interests of Eastern Washington have an opportunity to be heard in Olympia. I think that’s important.
ANDREW: What’s your field plan?
PETER: My field plan, for my campaign?
ANDREW: Yes.
PETER: Well, the field plan has been to get a lot of material out to all the different counties. And we’ve done our best to do that. It’s a big state. We’ve gotten a lot of materials out. We have paid special attention to some of the populated counties and will continue to do that.
But I’ve traveled through Eastern Washington extensively.
ANDREW: And what about in Okanogan, your home county?
PETER: We’re paying some special attention to Okanogan County. Because that’s my home; that's where I’ve been born and raised. And yes, we’ve got some special issues going on there and some special media there as well.
ANDREW: If you become the chief of the Department of Natural Resources, is there anything you will change immediately? What’s going to be your first order of business if you get elected?
PETER: Well, the first order of business will be to work to partner with the Legislature and the federal delegation to get funding for some pilot projects to start to convert some of our waste biomass into energy for jobs and to diversify the income stream for schools. That’s top on my list.
ANDREW: Are you going to change the state's approach to firefighting at all?
PETER: Yes. I will. I am a lifelong firefighter. I have seen some deficiencies. And I've got some excellent ideas to make sure that [putting the] fire out [is our] highest priority.
ANDREW: Do you have a position on the Maury Island mine - the proposed mine that Glacier Northwest is trying to create there?
PETER: Yeah, I am very concerned about that particular issue. Making sure we know who really owns that resource, and making sure whatever happens there is compatible with the cleanup and recovery of the Puget Sound.
And I know that the residents there - there are lots of environmental concerns - I want to make sure those are addressed.
ANDREW: And speaking of the Puget Sound cleanup… you support the Governor's efforts to clean up the Sound?
PETER: Absolutely… Absolutely. We must get started on that. That’s a valuable… it’s one of the most valuable natural resources of the state.
ANDREW: And what role will your department play in that cleanup if you’re elected?
PETER: It should be a leader in the whole cleanup, because the Commissioner of Public Lands has direct oversight on all the aquatic lands and much of the uplands as well. It should be a major player.
ANDREW: And most people don't know that, right?
PETER: Most people don't realize that, and the fact that the uplands play a huge role in the health of the Puget Sound.
ANDREW: Could you remind our listeners how much authority the Department of Natural Resources has? What’s their budget, and how many employees, and how many acres of land do they oversee?
PETER: Well, the budget is approximately $250-300 million a year, [there are] 1500 employees, [DNR has] direct oversight on five and half million acres of state public lands, and then oversight on timber harvest on another nine million acres of private forested lands across the state. That adds up to about a third of the state’s acreage. It’s a huge responsibility, worthy of everyone's consideration.
ANDREW: Do you think that inspections in the state need to be stepped up, like for mining and other interests? Do you think that we’ve fallen behind?
PETER: I think we need to make sure that all rules are fairly enforced. I don't think they are being fairly enforced now. And I think that public health and safety should be a component of that enforcement.
ANDREW: Any other thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
PETER: I think this is a very exciting time. The election is really almost on us. Many people are voting. It’s great opportunity to change out the leadership in the Department of Natural Resources and make it responsive to the public's needs.
ANDREW: Great, thank you for talking to us. Congratulations on the race you’ve run so far and good luck.
PETER: Thank you.
We’d like to thank Peter Goldmark for taking time out of his busy campaign schedule to talk to us.
If you have questions about this episode or suggestions for future ones, please get in touch with us by sending an email to feedback (at) nwprogressive (dot) org.
Also, please remember to mail in your ballot or head to the polls on Tuesday, November 4th and vote.
It’s important that we all fulfill our civic duty in this historic election.
We hope you'll join us for our next podcast later this month. For the Northwest Progressive Institute, I’m Andrew Villeneuve. Thanks for listening.
This episode is part of the Downballot Project, an effort by the Northwest Progressive Institute to cover races and ballot measures that have been overlooked or ignored by the traditional corporate media.
To subscribe to our podcast, plug our multimedia feed into your favorite aggregator - or click the below button to do so if you are an iTunes user.
Click the "Listen" link to hear the episode in your browser (Adobe Flash player required for playback), or read the transcription below.
ListenPeter Goldmark: Ready to protect our public lands
ANDREW VILLENEUVE: Hello and welcome to the Northwest Progressive Institute’s first podcast for October 2008. I’m Andrew Villeneuve, the Executive Director of NPI, and I’m pleased to be your host for this episode.
The 2008 general election is just days away from coming to a close, and while the contests for president and governor have received significant attention from the traditional media, many downballot races haven’t, including the close competition for Commissioner of Public Lands between Democrat Peter Goldmark and incumbent Republican Doug Sutherland. The outcome of this race will decide who leads the Department of Natural Resources for the next four years.
The job is a serious responsibility, because DNR manages over five million acres of state-owned forests, wilderness, underwater slopes, and agricultural lands. It has an annual budget of over three hundred million dollars.
At a recent Democratic rally headlined by Senator Joe Biden, I had the opportunity to talk to Peter Goldmark about his candidacy for Commissioner of Public Lands. What follows is the audio of that entire interview, which runs just over five minutes.
ANDREW VILLENEUVE: Alright, so Peter, the race for Lands Commissioner is in its final stretches. How do you feel it is going?
PETER GOLDMARK: I feel the race is going really well. I am really indebted to all the support I am getting all across the state, from people in education, from farmers, ranchers, from labor, from Democrats, from some Republicans. The race is really strong right now.
ANDREW: How are your final advertisements being received?
PETER: Very well. We’ve got TV up here in the I-5 corridor, TV in Spokane, Eastern Washington... We just put up a new radio spot, which features a pilot who flies aerial tankers for fire retarding. And it’s a very, very strong commercial.
ANDREW: What are your chief criticisms of Doug Sutherland's performance as Commissioner?
PETER: That he’s beholden to the special interests. You can see that from his policies from the lax oversight on the Lewis County floods to the PDC reports that show that he gets over half of his dollars from the very industries he’s supposed to regulate. And that’s wrong, because it draws into [the race] the issue of conflict of interest. I know the voters don't like to see people – politicians - receiving a lot of money from the interests that they [are charged with overseeing].
ANDREW: What do you think of the endorsements that Sutherland has received, from like the Spokesman Review, which said he is a better candidate?
PETER: Well, the Spokesman-Review is an Eastern Washington newspaper and it’s a very conservative newspaper. I am not surprised that they picked the Republican member of the campaign. They are very favorable to Republicans. That’s very predictable, unfortunately.
ANDREW: Unfortunately. How are you being received in Eastern Washington, though, by the people?
PETER: Very well. They know I am a rancher. They know I care about their same values. They know that’s where I have grown up and lived all my life, and that I will work in interest of everybody and make sure that the interests of Eastern Washington have an opportunity to be heard in Olympia. I think that’s important.
ANDREW: What’s your field plan?
PETER: My field plan, for my campaign?
ANDREW: Yes.
PETER: Well, the field plan has been to get a lot of material out to all the different counties. And we’ve done our best to do that. It’s a big state. We’ve gotten a lot of materials out. We have paid special attention to some of the populated counties and will continue to do that.
But I’ve traveled through Eastern Washington extensively.
ANDREW: And what about in Okanogan, your home county?
PETER: We’re paying some special attention to Okanogan County. Because that’s my home; that's where I’ve been born and raised. And yes, we’ve got some special issues going on there and some special media there as well.
ANDREW: If you become the chief of the Department of Natural Resources, is there anything you will change immediately? What’s going to be your first order of business if you get elected?
PETER: Well, the first order of business will be to work to partner with the Legislature and the federal delegation to get funding for some pilot projects to start to convert some of our waste biomass into energy for jobs and to diversify the income stream for schools. That’s top on my list.
ANDREW: Are you going to change the state's approach to firefighting at all?
PETER: Yes. I will. I am a lifelong firefighter. I have seen some deficiencies. And I've got some excellent ideas to make sure that [putting the] fire out [is our] highest priority.
ANDREW: Do you have a position on the Maury Island mine - the proposed mine that Glacier Northwest is trying to create there?
PETER: Yeah, I am very concerned about that particular issue. Making sure we know who really owns that resource, and making sure whatever happens there is compatible with the cleanup and recovery of the Puget Sound.
And I know that the residents there - there are lots of environmental concerns - I want to make sure those are addressed.
ANDREW: And speaking of the Puget Sound cleanup… you support the Governor's efforts to clean up the Sound?
PETER: Absolutely… Absolutely. We must get started on that. That’s a valuable… it’s one of the most valuable natural resources of the state.
ANDREW: And what role will your department play in that cleanup if you’re elected?
PETER: It should be a leader in the whole cleanup, because the Commissioner of Public Lands has direct oversight on all the aquatic lands and much of the uplands as well. It should be a major player.
ANDREW: And most people don't know that, right?
PETER: Most people don't realize that, and the fact that the uplands play a huge role in the health of the Puget Sound.
ANDREW: Could you remind our listeners how much authority the Department of Natural Resources has? What’s their budget, and how many employees, and how many acres of land do they oversee?
PETER: Well, the budget is approximately $250-300 million a year, [there are] 1500 employees, [DNR has] direct oversight on five and half million acres of state public lands, and then oversight on timber harvest on another nine million acres of private forested lands across the state. That adds up to about a third of the state’s acreage. It’s a huge responsibility, worthy of everyone's consideration.
ANDREW: Do you think that inspections in the state need to be stepped up, like for mining and other interests? Do you think that we’ve fallen behind?
PETER: I think we need to make sure that all rules are fairly enforced. I don't think they are being fairly enforced now. And I think that public health and safety should be a component of that enforcement.
ANDREW: Any other thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners?
PETER: I think this is a very exciting time. The election is really almost on us. Many people are voting. It’s great opportunity to change out the leadership in the Department of Natural Resources and make it responsive to the public's needs.
ANDREW: Great, thank you for talking to us. Congratulations on the race you’ve run so far and good luck.
PETER: Thank you.
We’d like to thank Peter Goldmark for taking time out of his busy campaign schedule to talk to us.
If you have questions about this episode or suggestions for future ones, please get in touch with us by sending an email to feedback (at) nwprogressive (dot) org.
Also, please remember to mail in your ballot or head to the polls on Tuesday, November 4th and vote.
It’s important that we all fulfill our civic duty in this historic election.
We hope you'll join us for our next podcast later this month. For the Northwest Progressive Institute, I’m Andrew Villeneuve. Thanks for listening.
# Posted by Andrew : 8:34 PM
Comments:
Post a Comment