Just a few years after leaving a more than 20-year tenure at the Lewis County Public Utility District (PUD), Jeff Baine is looking to “get back involved” with the utility.
Baine believes he has the experience to help the PUD plan for the future. Like many who seek a leadership position with the PUD, Baine trusts the local utility has been run well, but he’s ready to be part of the big decisions with an up close and personal view of what's going on.
“I want to be able to say, you know, here’s what they’re doing and here’s why I believe they’re doing it,” Baine told The Chronicle. “There’s a lot of big things coming up that we do have to be aware of.”
Much like his opponent, Steve Grega, Baine has positioned himself as a steady and experienced hand who is familiar with many parts of the PUD and understands it from the inside.
Baine first started his work with the utility in 2001 working on mapping and facilities management. When he left in 2023, he was working as the utility’s information services and telecommunications manager.
He now works as a “solutions architect” for a cyber security company called Barracuda, which develops firewalls and other cyber security systems for its customers.
Where his opponent is first and foremost an engineer, Baine’s experience is more in the technology side of public power. Baine has a computer science degree and is very familiar with the county’s broadband rollout. He’s the current president of the Lewis County Broadband Action Team, where he previously also served as a member.
That team, which was developed as part of broadband grant funding requirements, serves as an advisory committee on broadband development in the area.
Baine was one of its early members and recalls speaking with former PUD General Manager Chris Roden about the subject and the discussion snowballing into eventually applying for and receiving a $50,000 grant to begin developing broadband infrastructure.
Today, the PUD’s broadband development has dwarfed that original investment.
In that capacity, even though he no longer works at the PUD, he has remained connected particularly to the PUD’s rollout of broadband infrastructure across the county, largely with the help of state and federal grant funding.
When speaking about his platform, Baine mentioned many of the same upcoming issues as his opponent, touching on growing power demand, state mandates for renewable energy and the upcoming relicensing of the Cowlitz Falls Dam. That being said, he has repeated two points that have set him apart.
In both his interview with The Chronicle, recent debates and in videos on his campaign-dedicated Facebook page, Baine has touched on strategic planning and advocating for state energy policy.
Baine has shared excitement about getting involved in the utility’s strategic planning process and linked the plan to growing load demand in the area.
“We need to plan ahead and take care of our infrastructure that our community relies on,” Baine said in a recent Facebook video. “We need really clear policies and a potential review process that considers potential impacts on rates, power supply, infrastructure, regulations and even future power contracts.”
Concerning energy policy, Baine has mentioned the burden of complying with state policies such as the Clean Energy Transformation Act, which calls for the state to wean itself off of coal power by 2030 and off of natural gas-based power generation by the middle of the century.
As commissioner, Baine would like to make sure that PUD staff and commissioners “are going up to Olympia” and participating in groups such as the Washington Public Utility District Association “and having a voice, and not just sitting back and just keep doing the things we’ve always done.”
The Lewis County PUD is a member of a number of associations, including the Washington Public Utility District Association, that regularly make their interests heard in the state Legislature.
Baine was born and raised in Centralia and still lives in the area. He has two daughters and a son, all adults.
The general election is Nov. 3.
