POCATELLO — As a local Realtor, Jason Dixon, who is a Republican running against Democrat Sean Fay for Bannock County clerk, has had to win people’s trust and help parties find common ground on a daily basis.

And Fay emphasized that he’s overseen audits, been heavily involved in finances and organized big data sets on spreadsheets as an analyst for more than five years with Idaho State University.

Both candidates believe their skills would translate best to the clerk’s office. Both campaigns got off to a late start.

Fay’s party recruited him for the race after Kelly Martinez, a local radio personality, withdrew his candidacy. Fay had run and lost in the Democratic primary for state representative shortly before replacing Martinez on the Democratic side.

Fay said he was motivated to run for the office mostly by the opportunity to safeguard early voting in Bannock County.

“I think it’s essential that everyone have their voice heard,” Fay said.

Dixon and Max Shaffer, an Ash Grove Cement supervisor, both ran in the Republican primary as write-in candidates, shortly after incumbent Robert Poleki, a Democrat, made a surprise withdrawal from the campaign to focus on perfecting a self-cleaning toilet he’d invented.

“You have to take the opportunity when it arises, and to run in an open race, not against the incumbent, that’s the opportunity,” Dixon said.

Dixon, a Highland High School graduate, reached the rank of corporal in the U.S. Army, where he served as forward observer, assigned to lead teams that conducted scouting behind enemy lines. He got his real estate license 18 years ago and has served as a president of the Greater Pocatello Association of Realtors. He said serving the association has also provided him with organizational budgeting experience.

“The (clerk’s office) is a people-person job, and that’s what I do every day,” Dixon said. “I have to meet somebody, get in my car, and by the time we get to the first house, we need to have some common ground so that I can build a relationship so as time goes on, I can represent them in the biggest transaction they’re going to make in their lives.”

Fay was a state debate champion in policy at Pocatello High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Idaho State University, before taking a job at a consulting company, where he prepared documents for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He’s now working on a master’s in business administration at ISU.

He said he would propose a “good budget” to the Bannock County Commission, making certain it isn’t balanced on reserve funds. He would push for cost-of-living raises for employees and prioritize efforts to maintain good employee morale.

The clerk’s office oversees about 65 employees, encompassing duties such as juries, bonds and fines collection, administering elections, proposing a county budget and auditing.

Fay, who describes himself as an “Excel junkie,” said he’s also knowledgeable about elections, having managed seven past election campaigns.

Dixon emphasized that the county as an accountant to handle the budgeting and an exceptional deputy over elections. He sees his role as helping those people do their jobs and being an intermediary to work on budgeting “gaps” with the commission.

“Producing a fiscally responsible budget is key, and working with our commissioners on that,” Dixon said.

Dixon said he’s learned through meetings with county officials that “there hasn’t been a lot of communication in building the budget. It just gets brought over to the commissioners, and then they start talking about it.”