If indeed CG wins, there is a definite mandate. In a strongly Democratic state with a popular Democrat running for the governorship, her poor showing indicates that the bulk of the voters want change in the way the state is run-- otherwise Gregoire would have won by a landslide.

As for a study on the economics of sports fishing-- a state department, I think it was called "Economic Development" or some such thing, did a study that showed the economic benefit of commercial fishing versus sport fishing. The sport caught salmon returned a fantastic figure, something like $4 a pound; whereas commercially caught salmon were worth $.25 a fish.

I remember this from some work I did with Trout Unlimited, but that was 20 years ago, so things are a bit fuzzy on specifics. However, the economic benefits were very definite. Unfortunately, the Department of Fisheries couldn't do much with it because of the legislative mandate they have to promote commercial fishing. If that mandate could be changed to "best benefit of the state", sports fishing would own the resource.

Keith