David Tobin, the Democratic incumbent, has won a four-year term on the Pacific County Commission, defeating Republican challenger Rita Hall in a race for the board's peninsula-based seat.

SOUTH BEND — Incumbent Pacific County commissioner Dave Tobin has prevailed in the race to represent the Long Beach Peninsula on the top county board, beating back a challenge from Rita Hall and securing a four-year term.

The county auditor’s office released the latest tranche of ballots in the Nov. 5 general election late Friday afternoon, which saw Tobin, a Democrat who was appointed to the board in early 2023, maintain his solid edge over Hall, a Republican. With the addition of nearly 2,000 more ballots, Tobin now leads Hall by 687 votes — a lead of 5.9% and down only slightly from the 715-vote margin he had heading into the day.

County election officials estimate there are about 1,800 ballots left to count throughout Pacific County, with the next update scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 12.

In the other contested local contest, incumbent Pacific County PUD commissioner Debbie Oakes has decisively beaten her opponent, David McClain, for another six-year term. Oakes currently leads McClain by more than 3,000 votes — a margin of just over 30%.

At the congressional level, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Skamania) maintained her lead in the county on her way to winning district-wide over Republican challenger Joe Kent in what was a hotly contested rematch. Both the Columbian and Oregonian called the race in Perez’s favor Thursday evening.

Perez leads with 53.6% of the vote in Pacific County to Kent’s 46.2%, a margin of nearly 900 votes. District-wide, the first-term incumbent leads by about 15,300 votes, or 4%, with about 50,000 votes left to count throughout the Third Congressional District — the bulk of which are in Clark County, where Perez is leading Kent by more than 13%.

The Observer will have additional details on local races in its Nov. 13 print issue.