NAMPA -- There are a lot of races in next week's primary election where the winner takes all. If the candidate wins the primary, they will be uncontested in November.
The two races for Canyon County commissioner are just that as the winner will not face a Democratic challenger in the fall.
Four Republican candidates are vying for two seats on the commission.
In District One, Roger Buhler is challenging the incumbent Steve Rule.
Buhler is a small business owner who says the case of former Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak is one example of how the county needs to go in a different direction.
Bujak is accused of misusing public funds by taking money meant for the county and putting it in his personal accounts.
Rule is in his second term as commissioner and says what he and the other commissioners have been able to do since he took office is impressive.
"This one crooked action by a man elected by 70 percent of the public to give us legal council, as soon as we found out he was taking money we were on him," said Rule. "He wasn't a criminal until the day he resigned. And that's from a legal basis. There's nothing legal we could take action against him until that day."
"To give them a free pass on listing all the things they've done wrong, then condone that in bad behavior or just lack of judgment, I feel that as a citizen somebody ought to challenge that," said Buhler.
In District Three, Craig Hanson, a captain for Canyon County Sheriff's Office, is going up against the incumbent and chair of the commissioners David Ferdinand.
The Bujak case is also a talking point for this race.
"We followed the law, Mr. Bujak did not," said Ferdinand. "The law has been changed, it is intact, and we were given some pretty bad advice from our legal representatives, who just happened to be Mr. Bujak."
“If that approval had not been done and those monies would have gone into the county coffers for accountability instead of to John Bujak personally, we wouldn't have the John Bujak situation," said Hanson.
There are obviously many more issues that are up for debate between the candidates, including overcrowding at the county jail.
