Mona Das formally launches 2024 candidacy for Washington Commissioner of Public Lands

For­mer State Sen­a­tor Mona Das today became the lat­est can­di­date to declare a can­di­da­cy for statewide exec­u­tive office in 2024, announc­ing that she is run­ning to suc­ceed Hilary Franz as Wash­ing­ton’s Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands.

The office is one of nine statewide posi­tions in Wash­ing­ton’s exec­u­tive depart­ment, all of whose hold­ers are inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed by the voters.

The Com­mis­sion­er “leads Wash­ing­ton state’s wild­fire fight­ing force and man­ages near­ly six mil­lion acres of pub­lic lands – from coastal waters and aquat­ic reserves, to work­ing forests and farms, com­mer­cial devel­op­ments, and unpar­al­leled recre­ation areas,” as explained by the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources (DNR), the state agency that the Com­mis­sion­er heads. The Wash­ing­ton Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey is also part of DNR and thus the Com­mis­sion­er’s portfolio.

The Sur­vey is a “team of more than forty peo­ple who com­bine diverse back­grounds, per­spec­tives, and skills to pro­duce and pub­lish geo­log­ic infor­ma­tion about Wash­ing­ton for the ben­e­fit of every­one in our state. Our team includes geo­log­ic map­pers, geo­physi­cists, tsuna­mi sci­en­tists, land­slide geol­o­gists, mine inspec­tors, mine recla­ma­tion geol­o­gists, hydro­ge­ol­o­gists, edi­tors, GIS and data spe­cial­ists, car­tog­ra­phers, web devel­op­ers, admin­is­tra­tive staff, and pro­gram managers.”

The posi­tion is pro­vid­ed for in the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, but the Framers left its scope and author­i­ty up to the Leg­is­la­ture to define:

ARTICLE III, SECTION 1. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. The exec­u­tive depart­ment shall con­sist of a gov­er­nor, lieu­tenant gov­er­nor, sec­re­tary of state, trea­sur­er, audi­tor, attor­ney gen­er­al, super­in­ten­dent of pub­lic instruc­tion, and a com­mis­sion­er of pub­lic lands, who shall be sev­er­al­ly cho­sen by the qual­i­fied elec­tors of the state at the same time and place of vot­ing as for the mem­bers of the legislature.

ARTICLE III, SECTION 23. COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS — COMPENSATION. The com­mis­sion­er of pub­lic lands shall per­form such duties and receive such com­pen­sa­tion as the leg­is­la­ture may direct.

“Our next Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands must rec­og­nize the chal­lenges so many Wash­ing­to­ni­ans face, and lead an agency pre­pared to fight hard for the next gen­er­a­tion,” said Das in a state­ment sent to NPI.

“Cli­mate change is the most press­ing issue of our time and we need a bold leader in this office. From fire­fight­ers to for­est indus­try lead­ers, pro­tect­ed lands to recre­ation­al ser­vices, our state needs a proven coali­tion builder and change-mak­er equipped to meet all the needs we face at this time.”

Das, fifty-one, served one term in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, rep­re­sent­ing the 47th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict (South King Coun­ty). She defeat­ed Repub­li­can Joe Fain in the 2018 midterms, aveng­ing Fain’s 2010 defeat of Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­a­tor Clau­dia Kauff­man. When Das opt­ed against seek­ing reelec­tion, Kauff­man decid­ed to launch a cam­paign to reclaim her seat and won handily.

Kauff­man is among those endors­ing Das at the out­set of her campaign.

“Sen­a­tor Das cares deeply for our envi­ron­ment and for our Moth­er Earth,” said Kauff­man, the only Indige­nous woman serv­ing in the Sen­ate. “It is through her com­mit­ment to our human­i­ty, our shared val­ues, and our strongest alliance that I ful­ly endorse her for Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands. She is a woman who has gained the respect of her peers and our com­mu­ni­ty and deserves our support.”

Also back­ing Das is for­mer State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Tina Podlodowski.

“Sen­a­tor Das has the heart of an envi­ron­men­tal­ist, the expe­ri­ence of a suc­cess­ful busi­ness­woman, and the skills need­ed to bring togeth­er all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans to under­stand, cul­ti­vate, and nur­ture our pub­lic lands. As our next Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands, she’ll do this for our peo­ple now, and for gen­er­a­tions to come,” said Pod­lodows­ki, who served three con­sec­u­tive terms in the state par­ty’s top job.

Three oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic hope­fuls have also filed paper­work to run for Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands in Wash­ing­ton, or are con­sid­er­ing it:

• State Sen­a­tor Kevin Van De Wege, one of Das and Kauff­man’s colleagues
• King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Dave Upthe­grove, who ran in 2016
• Shore­line City Coun­cilmem­ber Kei­th Scully

On the Repub­li­can side, Sue Kuehl Ped­er­sen has decid­ed to run again. Kuehl Ped­er­sen was Franz’s oppo­nent in 2020, receiv­ing 43.21% of the vote.

The 2024 Top Two elec­tion will be held on Tues­day, August 6th, 2024.

Only two can­di­dates will qual­i­fy for the 2024 gen­er­al elec­tion runoff bal­lot, regard­less of par­ty. If Das, Upthe­grove, Van De Wege, and Scul­ly were to each get rough­ly an equal per­cent­age of the vote next sum­mer, and if anoth­er Repub­li­can were to join Kuehl Ped­er­sen in the con­test, and if the two Repub­li­cans were to receive more votes than the three Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty would be shut out of the 2024 gen­er­al elec­tion ballot.

That’s not an implau­si­ble sce­nario, as the events of the last six years have demon­strat­ed. Democ­rats were shut out in the 2016 Trea­sur­er’s race due to vote split­ting, as were Repub­li­cans in the 2020 Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor and 2022 Sec­re­tary of State con­tests. The best strat­e­gy the par­ties have for min­i­miz­ing their risk of fail­ing to get a can­di­date onto the gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot is win­now­ing down the field on their side of the divide before Fil­ing Week arrives.

Das vol­un­teered to help the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty in that regard five years ago, when she switched from run­ning for Con­gress (a race in which there were many oth­er cred­i­ble can­di­dates com­pet­ing — Kim Schri­er, Jason Rit­tereis­er, Shan­non Had­er) to State Sen­ate (a con­test where the par­ty need­ed a stan­dard bearer.)