Dave Upthegrove earns key endorsements from Washington Conservation Action, former Commissioner Peter Goldmark

Dave Upthe­grove’s cam­paign to become Wash­ing­ton State’s next Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands is rolling into the sea­son of renew­al with a huge amount of momen­tum after earn­ing two piv­otal endorse­ments that could help the King Coun­ty Coun­cil Chair stake out a posi­tion as the Demo­c­ra­t­ic fron­trun­ner in a crowd­ed field. 

The endorse­ments — from for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Com­mis­sion­er Peter Gold­mark and Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action — come at a crit­i­cal junc­ture in the cam­paign. Fil­ing Week is a lit­tle more than a month away and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty present­ly has too many can­di­dates who want the job. If the par­ty wants to avoid get­ting locked out in the gen­er­al elec­tion, it needs to uni­fy behind one cred­i­ble can­di­date, or at least con­sol­i­date its field down to two, to avoid the risk of vote-split­ting send­ing two Repub­li­cans to the gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot — a sce­nario that NPI’s polling sug­gests is a real threat.

The incum­bent, Hilary Franz, has decid­ed against seek­ing a third con­sec­u­tive term and is instead run­ning for Con­gress in Wash­ing­ton’s 6th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, leav­ing an open seat. Franz was a can­di­date for gov­er­nor for sev­er­al months after Jay Inslee announced his retire­ment, but switched to run­ning for Con­gress when Derek Kilmer announced he would­n’t seek anoth­er term. Franz’s deci­sion to pur­sue the high­est office in the state unleashed a flood of can­di­dates inter­est­ed in becom­ing her successor.

Upthe­grove is vying with Franz’s Direc­tor of Trib­al Rela­tions Patrick DePoe and Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­a­tors Rebec­ca Sal­dana and Kevin Van De Wege for the respon­si­bil­i­ty of run­ning the Wash­ing­ton Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources (DNR). The posi­tion of Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands is one of eight inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed posi­tions in the exec­u­tive depart­ment oth­er than gov­er­nor, the state’s high­est-pro­file pub­lic office.

Last week, Upthe­grove made his first big splash when he received the endorse­ment of for­mer Demo­c­ra­t­ic Com­mis­sion­er Peter Gold­mark, incum­bent Hilary Franz’s pre­de­ces­sor, who oust­ed Repub­li­can Doug Suther­land in 2008 and served two terms. In a news release, Gold­mark offered high praise for Upthe­grove, describ­ing him as eas­i­ly the best con­tender in the field of four Democ­rats men­tioned above. (A fifth hope­ful, Mona Das, recent­ly with­drew her can­di­da­cy after ceas­ing fundrais­ing activities.) 

“Through­out his career in pub­lic ser­vice, Dave Upthe­grove has been an envi­ron­men­tal cham­pi­on. His deep expe­ri­ence and track record of accom­plish­ments on con­ser­va­tion issues is head and shoul­ders above the oth­er can­di­dates in the crowd­ed race for Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands. That is why I am proud to offer my endorse­ment and sup­port to Dave and his cam­paign,” Gold­mark said. “In this era of cli­mate threat, a strong and moti­vat­ed envi­ron­men­tal leader is need­ed now more than ever at the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources, and Dave has cre­ative pol­i­cy ideas and the polit­i­cal and man­age­r­i­al skills to be that sort of trans­for­ma­tion­al leader.” 

“The endorse­ment from for­mer Lands Com­mis­sion­er Gold­mark is an hon­or, and the grow­ing and diverse coali­tion of sup­port for my cam­paign is the lat­est indi­ca­tion that we are well posi­tioned to make it through the pri­ma­ry and win in Novem­ber,” Upthe­grove said. 

Upthe­grove’s team argues that he has built the “strongest cam­paign in the race.” 

“He has raised more than any oth­er can­di­date, and with more than $265,000 in the bank has by far the most cash on hand,” a March 25th press release from Upthe­grove spokesman Sandeep Kaushik point­ed out. “With for­mer Repub­li­can Con­gress­woman Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler also post­ing strong fundrais­ing num­bers, Democ­rats will need to unite behind a strong, well resourced can­di­date in order to retain the office.” 

Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action has now come to that same conclusion. 

WCA announced yes­ter­day that it too is endors­ing Upthe­grove. Many polit­i­cal observers regard its endorse­ment as the most impor­tant avail­able to any of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates. Now Upthe­grove’s got it. This is a big deal for his cam­paign, because WCA’s elec­toral orga­niz­ing capa­bil­i­ties for can­di­dates espous­ing envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice are unmatched. Our team knows of many activists, strate­gists, and Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers who have been eager­ly antic­i­pat­ing WCA’s deci­sion, hop­ing it’ll help win­now the field. 

“Dave Upthe­grove is best posi­tioned to win giv­en his grass­roots sup­port around the state. We know he is pre­pared to work close­ly with the con­ser­va­tion and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice com­mu­ni­ty to bring the nec­es­sary change at DNR we need,” said Alyssa Macy, the CEO of Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action.

“Dave also under­stands the pos­i­tive role that our state lands play in stor­ing car­bon and address­ing cli­mate change, while cre­at­ing jobs, a per­spec­tive that is sore­ly need­ed in the office of the Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands.”

“There were a num­ber of strong can­di­dates for the posi­tion,” the orga­ni­za­tion explained in a news release announc­ing its deci­sion. “How­ev­er, Dave Upthe­grove emerged as the can­di­date best posi­tioned to win and advance pos­i­tive change on day one. When elect­ed as the next Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands, Dave will also make his­to­ry as Washington’s first LGBTQ statewide exec­u­tive elect­ed offi­cial, and one of only nine oth­er statewide elect­ed offi­cials across the coun­try, based on data from Vic­to­ry Fund & Institute.”

“The qual­i­fied can­di­dates in this race made our task to endorse dif­fi­cult. But Dave Upthe­grove is the best can­di­date for this race because he works strate­gi­cal­ly to build part­ner­ships, has been a long-term advo­cate for envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice in under­served com­mu­ni­ties and has the deep envi­ron­men­tal pol­i­cy expe­ri­ence need­ed to be a leader in fight­ing the cli­mate cri­sis,” said Preeti Shrid­har, Vice Chair of the Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action Board. “I have worked with Dave for many years in South King Coun­ty and have seen him get a lot done to make our com­mu­ni­ties more equitable.”

The orga­ni­za­tion is all-in and ready to go to bat for Upthegrove.

“WCA will edu­cate and mobi­lize its mem­bers and sup­port­ers around Dave Upthegrove’s con­ser­va­tion and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice record,” its announce­ment says. “Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action will also be launch­ing a vot­er engage­ment cam­paign called, ‘“‘Call 4 Cli­mate Action.’”’ This new, year-round effort will launch on Earth Day 2024. The goal is to get 50,000 dis­en­gaged vot­ers to com­mit to vote in November.” 

Fil­ing Week this year is May 6th — 10th. Vot­ers will win­now the field of can­di­dates down to two this sum­mer in the Top Two elec­tion, which con­cludes on August 6th. Only the top two vote get­ting can­di­dates will advance to the Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion runoff, regard­less of par­ty. Who­ev­er wins this autumn will take over for Franz begin­ning in ear­ly Jan­u­ary 2025, when new terms for exec­u­tive depart­ment posi­tions begin.