Conservationists restore balance to King County Conservation District‏

Contact: Jesseca Brand, 206-321-7723

Seattle - The votes have been counted and Max Prinsen, a veteran for the environment, won the King County Conservation District election.

Washington Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, Fuse and many others came together yesterday to turn out voters to win this little known race.  In the previous election, limited publicity and low voter turnout meant that a property rights candidate was able to squeak into office.  This year, turnout nearly doubled.  People were willing to wait in Bellevue for over 90 minutes, and the Seattle polling station actually ran out of ballots.

“The current make up of the commission was 2 votes Property Rights and 2 votes Conservation leaning.  We had to activate our base to make sure that the balance of power did not shift to Property Rights.  The Property Rights folks have been winning these elections all over the state with the plan to weaken environmental regulations.  This is a big win for environmentalists everywhere.”  said Jesseca Brand of the Washington Conservation Voters.

“This shows you what a difference we can make when we join forces,” said Scott Otterson, Political Chair of the Sierra Club Cascade Chapter.  “We knew that most voters care about protecting our land, and you can see that in the overall results --  the three environmental candidates got 64% of the votes.  This year, conservationists worked hard to unify our majority around one excellent candidate and it paid off."

The King Conservation District (KCD) is a natural resources assistance agency authorized by Washington State and guided by the Washington State Conservation Commission. A five-member Board of Supervisors is responsible for all District programs and activities and their total annual revenue of approximately $6.5 million dollars.