PORT ANGELES — Dan Gase conceded defeat today in his effort to dislodge incumbent Rep. Kevin Van De Wege from his 24th District Position 1 seat in the state House.
Gase, a Port Angeles Republican, said this afternoon that still-incomplete results from the Nov. 2 general election indicated that Van De Wege, a Sequim Democrat, had an insurmountable lead.
In the 24th District Position 2 state House race, Republican Jim McEntire, 60, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner, said today he was not ready to concede to Democrat Steve Tharinger, 61, a Clallam County commissioner.
The 24th District consists of Clallam and Jefferson counties and the northern half of Grays Harbor County, not including Aberdeen.
“I left a message for Kevin this morning after seeing the results and congratulated him,” said Gase, 57, a real estate managing broker for Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty.
“I told him I really enjoyed campaigning with him, and that I look forward to seeing all the good work he’s going to do for us in the next couple of years.”
In the second count of ballots, on Wednesday, Van De Wege, 36, a Clallam County Fire District 3 firefighter-paramedic, had 23,975 votes, or 54.2 percent, to Gase’s 19,397 votes, or 45.8 percent.
There are more than 10,500 ballots left to be counted in Clallam County and 3,609 in Jefferson County, auditors in those counties said Thursday.
A total of about 3,500 ballots remain to be counted in Grays Harbor County, a spokeswoman from the county elections department said.
All ballots in Jefferson and Grays Harbor County are scheduled to be counted Friday.
In Clallam, 4,718 ballots will be counted on Friday. The balance from Friday’s total, and any additional last-minute ballots, will be counted and reported on Monday and Tuesday.
McEntire, of Sequim, was behind by 1,321 votes after Wednesday’s count of ballots.
Tharinger, also of Sequim, had 22,181 votes, or 51.5 percent, to McEntire’s 20,860 votes, or 48.5 percent.
“There are too many ballots out there to come to any conclusion,” McEntire said today.
