Former longtime Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD) employee and retired local tree farmer Steve Grega appears poised to take the PUD’s commission’s District 1 seat over fellow former PUD employee Jeff Baine.
In a preliminary tally of Lewis County votes released Tuesday evening, Grega received 12,770 in his favor representing 54.93% of the votes counted as of about 8:30 p.m. Baine trailed Grega by more than 2,000 votes, with the preliminary count showing 10,250 ballots cast in his favor representing 44.09% of the vote.
The race between Grega and Baine was perhaps the most unclear among those in Lewis County headed into the general election. With just two local level nonpartisan candidates facing off for the office, there was no primary election, offering little idea of how the candidates would do in the election.
Likely because of that milder competition when compared with other local offices, the candidates also didn’t start widely campaigning until relatively late in the election cycle.
During debates, both candidates offered much of the same in terms of policy, with Grega leaning on nearly 40 years at the PUD and Baine leaning on a roughly 20-year career there as well. Both candidates had also stayed relatively involved in the PUD’s affairs or related fields in their time away from the PUD.
While Grega retired from the PUD a few years ago, he would attend meetings and was on familiar terms with PUD Commissioner Dave Muller, who he worked with during large parts of both of their careers at the PUD.
Baine has been closely involved with the rollout of broadband internet in the county, chairing the Lewis County Broadband Action Team even after leaving his job with the PUD to enter the private sector with a cyber security company just a few years ago.
