MARQUETTE — Marquette County voters have two rare opportunities to elect fresh faces into important local offices. The League of Women Voters of Marquette County, a non-partisan non-profit organization run by volunteers whose mission is voter registration and voter education, want you to know the candidates well.

On July 8, the league will present a candidate forum for the District 1 and District 3 County Commission races with doors opening at 5:30 at the Marquette Township Hall on Commerce Avenue. Then on July 9, the league will host a Candidate Forum for the 96th District Court Judicial race with doors opening at 5:30 at the Marquette City Commission chambers on Baraga Street.

Since at least 2000, county commission races have rarely been contested and when they were, the elected commissioners always won. However, in 2025 the commission lost two members to ill health and death and appointed two interim members. Now District 1, which holds precincts 3 and 4 of Marquette city, has two contenders: Karl Numinen, the appointed commissioner and Cody Mayer. District 3, which holds Marquette Township and precinct 1 of Marquette city, has three contenders: Fred Benzie, the appointed commissioner, Randy Ritari and Jenna Smith.

The county commissioners oversee many vital services in Marquette County. These include: the Sheriff’s department and jail, the Airport operations (not the airlines), Central Dispatch (911), Road Commission, Solid Waste and Landfill, Pathways, Community Action and UPCAP, Public Health, Land Bank, and Central UP Planning and Development, plus many more. Our lives are affected every day by the decisions of the county board of commissioners.

The forum will present all five candidates and invite all Marquette County citizens to participate. Only voters in the designated districts will be able to vote for these candidates, but what they do will affect all county citizens, and any county citizen is encouraged to submit questions. Since all candidates are registered Democrats, they will appear on the Democratic primary portion of the ballot in the Aug. 4 Primary Election.

The retirement of Roger W. Kangas, judge of the 96th District Court since 2003, has opened that office to a contested race for the first time in 23 years. The district court handles most of the legal cases that Marquette County citizens might be involved in: All traffic civil and misdemeanor cases; small claims and eviction cases; civil marriages; all misdemeanors that could result in less than a year in jail; first appearances and preliminary exams of all felonies; the setting of bail in all misdemeanors and felonies; and oversees the Probation Office.

At the forum, Marquette County citizens can submit questions to all three candidates: Patrick Crowley, William Nordeen and Derek Swajanen. During the forum, the candidates will each describe aspects of the court to familiarize the citizens, and then each, in turn, will answer the same questions from the audience and from those previously submitted. This race is non-partisan and the candidates will appear on the non-partisan section of the ballot in the primary election on Aug. 4.

Any Marquette County citizen wishing to submit a question for either or both of these forums should send it by email to lwvmqtco@gmail.com. Please indicate which forum the question is for and avoid personal comments: each question asked will be answered by all candidates. The forums will be live-streamed and recorded to the League’s Youtube channel: youtube.com/@LeagueofWomenVotersMarquetteCo. You can watch previous forums there as well.