In a race just like four years ago, area residents re-elected incumbent Jim Nelson Tuesday to the Freeborn County Commissioner District 3 seat.

Nelson won over challenger David Shoff, receiving 1,532 votes compared to Shoff’s 1,331 votes.

“I need to thank everyone who voted for me,” said Nelson, a farmer. “I respect Mr. Shoff, and I will try and support everyone that voted for me and the ones that didn’t vote for me, too.”

Nelson was harvesting his crops at the time the results came in. He is nearing the end of his first term in office on the Freeborn County board of commissioners.

Shoff, a hotel manager, said he enjoyed having Nelson as an opponent and noted he thinks Nelson ran a good race.

Shoff said he’s not “overly disappointed” that he did not win the race.

“I feel I ran a very effective campaign,” he said. “I think the central theme of the election was about our budget, the problems we’ve encountered because of the budget, and the problems we’re going to continue to have if we continue down the path we’re on.”

He wished Nelson the best of luck in the next four years.

“They’re going to have some big issues to contend with,” he said. “I’m hopeful that the right decisions will be made.”

In the September primary, Shoff beat out Nelson with 266 votes to 193 votes.

Albert Lea City Councilman John Severtson came in third with 176 votes, and Former Commissioner Keith A. Porter Sr. was fourth with 158 votes. Shoff and Nelson moved forward to the general election.

Though Severtson did not make enough votes in the primary to be put onto the ballot, he ran as a write-in candidate during the general election. He received 61 votes.

Severtson said: “My message still is to say the county still has to support the city of Albert Lea. Hopefully Jim will keep contacting the new 5th Ward councilman, or Reid or myself and say ‘what can the county do for you?’ That’s pretty much all I wanted to do with this write-in thing.”

Though Shoff came back from the loss in 2004 to run again this year, he said things will be different now. He said: “I would find it very unlikely that I’ll ever run for office again.”

In an interview in August with Nelson, he said though he sometimes makes mistakes, he’s willing to learn from those mistakes and move forward.

He grew up in Freeborn County on the very farm he lives on today. He’s been farming his whole life, he said, and now his son, Jeremy, helps out. Nelson also has a daughter, Janine, who works in Mason City, Iowa.

He has been married to his wife, Mary, for more than 30 years. She owns a trucking company — for which Jeremy also drives truck — and the couple do a lot of road construction.