On her voicemail answering machine, El Paso County Commissioner-hopeful Joan Lucia-Treese makes a statement: She is the first declared candidate for District 4.

Since she declared her intention to run for the District 4 seat last September, Treese’s early candidacy is nothing new. But her need to mark her declaration as the first is worth noting, since 10 other candidates have added their names to list of those running for county commissioner seats in 2016. Thus far, District 4, one of three seats open, is the most hotly contested race with five candidates.

El Paso County Commissioners Dennis Hisey of District 4, Sallie Clark of District 3 and Amy Lathen of District 2 are all term limited, making three of five board of commissioners seats available to candidates who won’t have to run against an incumbent. That was one reason why Lucia-Treese declared her candidacy so early.

“I have been serving on county boards for the past several years, and I just felt it was time,” she said. “And I knew that with an open seat there would be several candidates to come out.”

While it might seem early to declare a candidacy for a November 2016 election, a handful of the District 4 candidates thought they were a little bit behind the ball when they declared their intention to run this summer. After seeing the lineup of already-declared candidates, Marsha Brewer decided that she should put her name to the hat as well.

“I am in the latest one in, and I think it’s really early, too,” Brewer said.

Brewer and Lucia-Treese will be running against Longinos Gonzalez, who made a failed city council bid this spring, Scott Turner and Liz Rosenbaum, thus far the only Democrat to enter the race.

District 2 has three candidates: Sherrie Gibson, former State Rep. Mark Waller and Tim Geitner. District 3 also has three candidates: Susan Payne, Alex Johnson and Tyler Stevens.

The wave of early commissioner candidates might be somewhat of a snowball-effect, driving candidates to file early just to keep up with those who filed earlier. When Gonzalez learned that two other candidates already vying for the District 4 seat, he decided he would have to declared himself as well.

“There had already been two people declared into the race, so I didn’t want to wait too much longer,” he said. “I didn’t want everybody else to get too far into front of me. I would have preferred to have waited for later.”

For the women of the District 4 race, running for commissioner is the culmination of years of public service, or else the realization of a long-term goal. Both Rosenbaum and Lucia-Treese said they started early to help to familiarize themselves with the vast territory of District 4, which includes Fort Carson to the west and agricultural and ranch lands to the east along the Lincoln County line.

For Brewer, however, running for commissioner was never “on my bucket-list to do,” she said. At 66, she has been enjoying her retirement, and she just bought a fifth wheel to take on fishing trips. But after living among eastern El Paso County’s rural folk and sensing a lack of representation on the board of county commissioners, Brewer decided that the fifth wheel would have to wait.

“I have not felt that the rural communities have a voice on the board, in my mind they didn’t even realize the vastness of commissioner District 4,” she said. “I really just need to do this.”