The votes haven’t all been counted, but the writing is on the wall.
A day after the first ballot count showed state Rep. Jim Buck, R-Joyce, trailing behind Sequim Democrat Kevin Van De Wege by about 10 percentage points, Buck said he will concede the election.
The general election ended Tuesday.
The next step is a vacation in Hawaii for Buck, 58, a West Point graduate and civil engineer.
He had been seeking a seventh term in the state House of Representatives.
His wife, Donna Kay Buck, is the chairwoman of the Clallam County Republican Party, and deserved a break after a bitter and expensive campaign, he said.
“She worked really, really hard,” he said Wednesday.
“It was a good run,” he said of his 12 years in the Legislature.
Van De Wege, 32, a Sequim firefighter/paramedic, spent Wednesday morning pulling down campaign signs.
He acknowledged that while it was theoretically possible uncounted ballots could tip the election to Buck, he admitted that he was optimistic.
“We’re pretty confident,” he said.