Abbarno takes 20th house district seat

LONGVIEW — Centralia republican Peter Abbarno swept the early returns in the race for the 20th house district seat based on Tuesday’s unofficial returns.

He won 70% of the vote to Toutle Democrat Timothy Zahn’s 30%. That’s 45,961 votes for Abbarno and 19,887 for Zahn, according to the unofficial returns.

The 20th Legislative district includes parts of Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis and Thurston counties.

According to the secretary of state’s website, there are about 9,200 ballots left to count in Cowlitz County, 70,000 left in Clark, 100 in Lewis and 27,000 in Thurston.

Both candidates said the local economy needs more family jobs and rural infrastructure needs a boost.

They differed in how to balance the state’s budget, with Zahn supporting a temporary 1% wealth tax on people with more than $10 million in assets and Abbarno prefers specific cuts to the budget, not an across-the-board 15% cut as proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee.

Abbarno, 44, was endorsed by Rep. Richard DeBolt, a longtime Chehalis Republican whose seat he is running for; Republican state Senator John Braun; and Republican state representatives Ed Orcutt and Jim Walsh, among others.

Zahn, 25, was endorsed by Thurston County Democrats, Cowlitz County Democrats and Lewis County Democrats, among others.