Democrat Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim conceded to Jim Buck on Tuesday after new ballot tallies showed the veteran Republican state representative to be the winner.
“We are conceding this afternoon,” Van De Wege said.
“Clallam County released more results this afternoon, and there’s just no way we can make up the difference anymore with the few votes left to be counted.”
The latest vote count showed Buck leading the 24th District race with 32,666 votes, or 51.65 percent, to Van De Wege’s 30,571 votes, or 48.34 percent.
The margin of 3.3 percent was a noticeable increase over Buck’s initial election night lead of just 1.9 percent.
With the counting of about 5,000 ballots Tuesday, Clallam County now totals 18,638 votes for Buck and 15,297 for Van De Wege, a firefighter/paramedic with Clallam County Fire District No. 3 (Sequim).
Grays Harbor County, which is partly covered by the 24th District, reported 7,315 votes for Buck and 5,951 for Van De Wege.
The challenger benefited by a Democratic sweep in Jefferson County, which carried presidential candidate John Kerry and gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire, and ousted two incumbent Republican county commissioners with Democrats.
Van De Wege received 9,323 votes in Jefferson to Buck’s 6,713. About 2,000 more ballots are due to be counted today.
