It seems rare these days to find two outstanding individuals vying for the same political office, but that is just the case in the race for public defender in Sarasota County.

Voters would be hard-pressed to find more dedicated and qualified candidates than Larry Eger and Adam Tebrugge, both of whom profess a strong desire to take over an office with a budget the legislature keeps cutting at the same time the case load continues to rise.

And each has 23 years of experience in that office, which serves Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. Eger is the chief assistant in charge of Manatee County. Before he resigned in March to enter the race, Tebrugge had a high profile as the person who tried all the capital cases.

Eger told the Pelican Press he feels the office is serving its clients well, but Tebrugge says the staff sometimes gets caught up in meetings and reports and forgets to return phone calls and get first appearances scheduled in a timely manner. In his first year on the job, he says he would make sure staff knew customer service was a high priority.

Eger wants to focus on pre-trial release programs, which can help criminal defendants get jobs, get treatment for their addictions, stay out of trouble, and – above all – enable them to turn their lives around. With such help, they can make better cases for themselves before judges, when sentences are to be pronounced.

Both men have been involved in the community. Eger points to his five years as president of the 600-student Sarasota School of Arts and Sciences, a highly acclaimed public charter institution, as his top achievement outside work. He also has been a youth basketball coach. Tebrugge was president of the Sarasota County Civic League in 2005-06 and is on the board of Suncoast Partnership to End Homeless and the Mentoring Children of Promise advisory board.

Both men are passionate and clear about their goals. We have no doubt each would begin immediately to put his own stamp on the office.

Yet, we feel the edge goes to Eger because of his management experience. Although we try to shy away from clichés, in this case it does seem apt to say Eger seems more likely to be able to hit the ground running. And given all the issues the office has to contend with, that factor is more than enough reason for the Pelican Press to support Larry Eger for public defender.

Incumbent Doug Holder moved to this area a month before qualifying to run for our vacant state House seat two years ago. He contributed nearly $400,000 of his own and family money to inundate the Democratic candidate, David Shapiro, with an orgy of signs and nonstop television commercials, outspending him four-to-one.

The total was the most ever spent by any legislative candidate in Florida.

Who can forget: "My wife is pretty and I have a nice personality?" Ah, but it worked. He won by 756 votes.

This year the 41-year-old freshman’s campaign account is outpacing that of another promising Democratic challenger, Sam Rosenfeld of Siesta Key, but this time political action committees, lobbying groups and big corporate cash are replacing the Holder family fortune as funding sources: Chevron Oil (Concord, Calif.), American Express (Phoenix), Bristol Myers Squibb (Houston), FPL PAC (Juno Beach), Bayer (Pittsburgh), and the American Insurance Association (Washington, D.C.) are among the hundreds of major check-writers who support this obscure Florida state representative’s re-election campaign.

You’ve got to wonder why. But Holder’s leading the fundraising derby 2-1 and will doubtless write personal checks only if Republican Party polls show he’s falling behind.

Sam Rosenfeld, 55, is a retired dentist from Pennsylvania. He watched in dismay as the national and state economies headed downward, threatening companies, jobs, homes and communities. He observed the gridlock and vowed to do something about it: help establish a national catastrophe fund to ease windstorm insurance pressure on Florida homeowners; find a way to close the $3.5-billion state budget deficit; assure quality health care for employees; and get past all the posturing for votes with endless debates over irrelevant "social issues."

He believes his 25 years spent making payroll and running a small business – his dental clinics – gives him insight into what these times mean to those local businessmen. There’s real work to be done in Tallahassee, he says, but the solution will require a concerted bipartisan effort. We’ll see if that happens, but he deserves a chance.

That deficit is a particular challenge, he believes. Finding a combination of revenue sources and cutting expenditures without jeopardizing the safety of our most vulnerable citizens won’t be easy, but he believes taxing Internet sales could be a strong start – with the added benefit of making it easier for local bricks-and-mortar stores to compete.

District 70 includes all of Siesta Key and Sarasota south to the county line. We believe it’s time for a change in Tallahassee’s particularly strident tradition of partisanship. That’s why we ask you to vote for Sam Rosenfeld on Nov. 4.