The 40 Below Young Professionals of Marquette County is hosting an inaugural non-partisan candidates forum in Marquette on Thursday.

The forum will showcase candidates for the Marquette City Commission and Marquette County Board and will be at 6 p.m. in commission chambers of city hall.

We think this is a great opportunity for the public to see and hear candidates answer questions on issues important to local voters.

“The forum will begin with candidates for Marquette County (Board) offering opening statements and fielding questions, both pre-selected and drawn at random from audience submission,” said Marina Dupler, chairwoman of a 40 Below candidate forum planning committee organizing the event. “After closing statements and a short break, the forum will resume in similar fashion with city commission candidates.”

So far, several of the city and county candidates have agreed to participate in the event.

We encourage all of you interested to go to the forum and ask your candidates questions about the issues you think are important to you. This kind of interaction is often hard to come by in political campaigns of the modern era when candidates can often script events or plan to avoid questioning from the public.

The forum will be recorded and will be available afterward on the 40 Below website at: www.40belowmqt.org. We think this is another great feature of the event, especially for those who may not be able to attend the forum, but are still interested in the issues and the candidates and plan to vote Aug. 5.