The nearly-unthinkable happened when 3rd District challengers ousted the incumbent in the September primary. What that means is there are two virtually unknown candidates running for the commissioner seat.

Both David Shoff and Jim Nelson would make adequate commissioners, however, we had to make a choice &045; Nelson gets our endorsement.

Nelson demonstrated a knowledge of county issues, believes in drawing constituents into the decision-making process and offered a host of practical cost-cutting ideas to help Freeborn County stretch its tax dollars.

Nelson clearly has done his homework since the primary. While he recognizes the need to go beyond county borders when seeking bids, he would encourage local participation of county projects, and would encourage more contact with department heads as sources of information.

He also suggested some staff sharing among departments &045; as appropriate &045; as one way to make county government more efficient. Recognizing that probably already occurs, he said there’s always more that can be done.

That’s not to say Shoff was silent on what could be done to cut county spending, but in the end, we liked what Nelson had to say about finding new ways to maximize efficiencies in the county budget and across county departments.