Marquette County Board, City Commission candidates speak at forum

There are 17 candidates running for the Marquette County Board and seven for the Marquette City Commission, so voters will have some decisions to make during the primary in a few weeks.  The public was able to hear from candidates for both the county board and city commission Thursday night.

Fourteen of the seventeen candidates for county board answered questions from residents during a forum hosted by the 40 Below Young Professionals of Marquette County.  Improving the county’s economy, and making sure the board is efficient to keep the county moving forward were important issues.

“I think Marquette County is actually in pretty good shape,” Marquette County Board District 5 candidate Bill Nordeen said.  “I think we’re regarded as one of the better counties in the U.P., probably the leading county.  And I think we have to make sure we don’t change things that are working well, but with that said, there’s a lot of things in county government that can always be improved so we need to look at what opportunities we have to improve government going forward and try to keep the good things and change the bad things.”

Candidates said one of the most important things a Marquette County resident can do for the upcoming election is to simply head to the polls and vote.

“I’ve been involved in the political process for a long time and as a school teacher I always used to say if you don’t vote you really don’t have much of a right to comment because your one opportunity to get out and express an opinion by voting for or against somebody is the election day,” Marquette City Commission candidate Tom Baldini said.  “(The primary) is a nominating election and that’s very important, and who’ll be there to go through for the November election.”

“I just think people should come out and vote, that’s obviously our civic duty and that’s the way our government works,” Nordeen said, “and I think people need to get out to the polls and every vote counts.  So voters should come out and decide what candidate they want, and let the people decide.”

The primary election is August 5.  A list of candidates for both the county board and city commission can be found on the county’s website.