The two candidates for state agriculture commissioner say they don't want to talk about the department's rocky past. But like it or not, neither can escape it.

More than a year after Meg Scott Phipps resigned as agriculture commissioner and was sent to prison -- for extorting money from carnival companies that wanted to work at the State Fair, which the department oversees -- the shadow of that scandal is hanging over this year's race for state agriculture commissioner.

And the Ferris wheel is towering over Hillsborough Street this week, making the State Fair and its history a hard topic to avoid.

Britt Cobb, the Democrat, wants to be seen as the man who cleaned up a scandal left by his Democratic predecessor.

Steve Troxler, the Republican who lost to Phipps four years ago, said he is the man who can remove the stain from a department tainted by corruption.

Troxler said he has vowed not to attack Cobb or to link him with the Phipps scandal, but he is clearly hoping that the memory of it will help him become the first Republican to win the office.

"One thing I've heard thousands and thousands of times in the past few years is, 'You should have won last time,' " said Troxler, a farmer from the Guilford County town of Browns Summit. "I think it would be a breath of fresh air."

Cobb, a career employee with the Department of Agriculture, was appointed by Gov. Mike Easley to fill Phipps' slot. He also said he doesn't want to harp on the Phipps scandal. "This department has been through enough," Cobb said.

But he is quick to point out that he and Phipps were not close. He said he was in her office only twice during the 2 1/2 years she was commissioner.

As he strolls the grounds of the State Fair this week, he's hoping people remember that he revamped the process of selecting a carnival operator to avoid any appearance of favoritism and made the fair record profits in the process.

"The department is so much larger than just the fair," Cobb said. "But to a lot of people, the State Fair is the front porch of the Department of Agriculture. And we've got it cleaned up."

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, as it is officially known, has a $50 million budget and carries out an array of responsibilities. In addition to running the State Fair in Raleigh and the Mountain State Fair near Asheville, the department inspects grocery stores, checks the accuracy of gas pumps and regulates exterminators. It is the front line in protecting the state against foreign diseases such as mad cow, and it is responsible for helping farmers develop and market new products.

Whoever wins the race will take the helm of the agriculture industry at a time when small farmers are quickly disappearing. The state's tobacco industry, which has kept small family farms in business for generations, is in transition as the government prepares to lift a price support program that has regulated it since the 1930s.

Both men say they want to keep farmers on their land. They say that means helping them venture into new crops -- and helping them figure out how to sell their harvest in a time when they can no longer drop off loads of melons at the local grocery store.

Both candidates also say they will push hard on food safety and fighting foreign diseases, whether intentionally or accidentally introduced. They say their biggest difference lies in their experience.

Troxler, who grows tobacco and wheat on a farm that his family has owned for generations, said he understands what farmers need. "The difference is in the eyes we look through," Troxler said. "I've been on the farm."

Cobb grew up on a Wilson County tobacco farm but spent the past 32 years working in the Department of Agriculture, mostly in the marketing division. He said that experience makes him uniquely qualified.

"Farmers know how to grow it. They don't need me to tell them how to grow it," Cobb said. "They need someone to help them sell it. That's my background."