Commissioner candidates spar as voters consider ballots

District 2 Whitman County Commissioner Pat O’Neill believes his election battle with challenger Dean Kinzer comes down to one decision.

“It’s down to one issue: Hawkins,” said O’Neill, a Democrat from Johnson. “Good or bad, this is what this election’s about.”

“I put my job on the line for it.”

Kinzer, a Republican farmer from Ewartsville, said he filed for the job because of O’Neill’s January decision to increase from $9.1 million to $15 million the county’s commitment to build infrastructure for a 714,000-square-foot shopping center long-proposed by Boise-based Hawkins Companies.

“That’s wha...