Tobin, Hall advance to general election; PCFD1 levy passes easily

Published 3:29 pm Monday, August 12, 2024

Two candidates have emerged from last week’s three-person primary in a bid to represent the Long Beach Peninsula on the Pacific County Commission for the next four years.

With nearly all ballots counted by the Pacific County Auditor’s Office as of a Monday, Aug. 12 update, incumbent county commissioner David Tobin, a Democrat, is out ahead in the top-two primary with 52.5% of the vote, while Rita Hall, a Republican, is in second with 38.3%. David Anderson, running as an independent, sits at 9.1%.

Tobin, 68, is the former longtime principal at Ilwaco High School and has served as commissioner since being appointed to his seat in January 2023 and is running for a four-year term of his own. He will face off in the general election against Hall, 74, who retired to the peninsula in 2018 and previously worked as a certified nursing assistant, developed retail stores and managed businesses.

Hall told the Observer that she was “stoked” and “excited” about advancing to the general election. “I plan to give it the best shot I possibly can, and I’ll be meeting a lot of people and letting them get to know me a little bit and giving it my very best shot.”

Anderson, 59, moved to the area during the covid-19 pandemic and co-owns and operates the Coastal Class Crepes food truck with his wife and had previous stints as public works director for both Long Beach and Pacific County. He told the Observer earlier this week that he was endorsing Tobin in the general election, saying he believed the incumbent had the experience and integrity to help the county’s tourism-reliant economy grow responsibly.

“You can make the metaphor that as a county we want to attract the right kind of tourist for our businesses and for our workers, and in order to do that it’s kind of like being a fishing boat captain; you need to know what kind of fish you’re going to go after, you need to know how to safely get to those waters, and you need to know what kind of bait that you need in order to catch those fish,” Anderson said.

“I want to put my endorsement behind David Tobin, and the reason is because he has been the captain of a ship with that experience,” he added. “He has captained the Ilwaco High School as principal, and that is a very difficult job to do … I’d also like to add that I worked with [him] at the high school, and I personally saw that he was a man of mettle, that he was honest and that he had integrity.”

Anderson added that he would be closely following the commission’s actions and wanted to see them take on projects like reopening the Chinook County Park to overnight camping and completing a 26-mile loop of the Discovery Trail. He said that he was fully planning to run again for the position in four years, when he hoped Tobin might be ready to “pass the torch.”

PCFD1 levy passes

The other local contest on the primary ballot for most peninsula voters, a request from Pacific County Fire District No. 1 to lift its levy lid, is easily passing with 68.5% of the vote. Only a simple majority was needed for the measure to pass.

With the levy’s passage, the fire district’s property tax levy will increase from $0.85 to $1.15 per $1,000 of assessed value — about $10 more per month for a property valued at $400,000. Collections will begin in 2025.

The funds will enable PCFD1 to hire four new firefighters-EMTs-paramedics and acquire needed resources and equipment to support a third, 24/7-staffed fire station in Surfside. According to top fire district officials, lifting the levy lid is seen as a critical step in countering rising call volumes that they say have stretched their firefighters and emergency responders thin up and down the peninsula in recent years.

PCFD1 Fire Chief Jacob Brundage said in a statement that the fire district “is humbled by the support of the community.”

“We have a lot of work to do, but are excited and optimistic about the upcoming changes that will meet the needs of the community and provide improved safety to our responders,” he added. “We will continue to update the community with progress on staffing the Surfside station and the overall improvements to our response model, which will impact our ability to manage emergencies in all areas of the fire district.”

A total of 8,373 ballots had been tallied countywide as of Aug. 12, with turnout currently at 49.2% — down from 61.7% in the 2020 primary, but up from 43.8% in 2016.