From left: Forum moderator and League of Women Voters member Jo Foley, Melody Wagner, Joe Boogren and Jenn Hill participate in the Candidates Forum Thursday at the Marquette Township Hall. The forum featured a wide-ranging list of topics that candidates for the 109th State House District seat currently held by Sara Cambensy addressed before the Aug. 2 primary. (Journal Photo by Randy Crouch)

MARQUETTE — Three of the four candidates hoping to represent the 109th State House District gave voters a chance to hear their stances on several topics of local and national importance during a candidates forum recently hosted by the League of Women Voters of Marquette County.

Democratic Party hopefuls Jenn Hill and Joe Boogren were joined by Republican Melody Wagner during the July 2 forum and fielded several questions submitted in writing by audience members.

Boogren is a Forsyth Township supervisor and small business owner who spent 30 years in the U.S. Navy. Hill is a Marquette city commissioner. Wagner has experience as a substitute teacher, law enforcement officer and farmer.

The candidates are seeking to succeed state Rep. Sara Cambensy, who cannot run again due to term limits. State redistricting has placed eastern Dickinson County in the 109th District, after formerly being in the 108th District, which was shifted east and out of Dickinson County.

Jo Foley, executive vice president and director of education for the League of Women Voters of Marquette County, played the role of moderator during the forum. Each candidate was allotted two minutes for opening statements before the audience questions were read.

The first question posed to the candidates focused on the biggest challenge for the district over the next two years.

“We have young people who are unable to stay here. There is an absolute lack of affordable housing,” Boogren said. “We need to have things that are sustainable. I happen to be a big proponent of our local culture of mining and timber. There’s two ways you get things in this world, one is you take it out of the ground and the other it grows from the ground. It has to come from somewhere.”

“Housing, obviously, and the question of how we untie this knot where it costs $300 a square foot to build any kind of home here,” Hill said. “This is a regional issue. We are going to have to come together. Different communities have different strengths or different needs in what they need for housing. If we can work together I think we can find solutions. It’s going to take time.”

“Trying to get teachers in the schools, trying to get substitute teachers. We have lowered the standards temporarily to try and get substitute teachers in here,” Wagner said. “Behavioral issues in the schools are a huge problem. We have got to invest in our children’s future. We have to teach them to work.”

Another question focused on short-term home rentals, such as Airbnbs, and whether the rentals should be regulated by the state or by local communities.

“Short-term rentals should be managed by local government. The impact of turning every home into a business, while it seems like it might help people with the affordable pricing of housing, in Marquette we know that only six of the 250 short-term rentals are owner-occupied,” Hill said. “They’ve taken away the opportunity for people to find that starter home, move up when they have more kids. Opportunities for seniors to move on in their next phase of living. Short-term rentals do not provide taxes back to local government.”

“You’re taking the rights away from homeowners,” Wagner said. “The fact that the rentals are going up faster than ownership right now concerns me and it concerns a lot of others. Local communities is what I feel are the best to understand their area, what’s going on in them. I’m not sure the legislation should make that determination.”

“I’m a supporter of a state framework, specifically from the taxation standpoint,” Boogren said. “Of the $8 million generated — and I’ll stick strictly to the central U.P. area — last year from short-term rentals, about $500,000 came back to local government. I can tell you from running a fire department and police force and every other service that is impacted by short-term rentals, you’re not going to get there from here.”

Abortion rights were discussed next, less than a week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that protected abortion access at the national level.

“It should be in the states’ hands, Wagner said. “The people are going to get to vote on it. What they do in the future, I m not sure of.”

“This is a women’s health care issue, first and foremost,” Boogren said. “I think it’s appalling and I think it’s a horrid day for women in America and Americans in general. It starts with this court (being) wildly out-of-sync with Americans’ opinions on this. Over 60 percent of Americans and over 67 percent of Michiganders support Roe v. Wade.”

“I strongly believe that the government does not have the right to get between a doctor and an individual. There are all kinds of medical issues going on that we cannot predict. This is a very challenging decision,” Hill said. “Folks have every right to make that decision with their medical provider.”

Next, the candidates were asked their opinions on logging and mining of metals such as nickel and copper in the U.P.

“I am a strong proponent,” Boogren said. “But it comes with responsibility. That is our culture, that is our heritage here. I think it is a sad misjudgment to not believe that this district, at its heart, is still largely focused on mining and timber. It provides a way of life for many, many, many families. We would be a ghost district without them. We, in the central U.P., are known across the globe for our practices in timber.”

“The good news is that so much has changed in these industries,” Hill said. “They are so much more sustainable than they used to be. The question of the workers and how the workers are treated is a very important one. In looking forward for these industries, as international commodities and products that are sold internationally, it’s certainly a strong pillar to build parts of our economy on and keep that incredible skilled workforce here. At the same time, I wonder, how can we get better deals and how can we be sure that when new innovations come forward, how do we make sure that more of that money actually stays here?”

“We’ve got forests out there that we’re not currently getting product from. I think that could get explored and I think there could be agreement on that,” Wagner said. “Use modern forestry to properly take care of these forests. They’re sitting there, everybody’s enjoying them, we’ve got our trails, we’ve got lots of beauty up here. But what happens if we don’t manage everything that we have properly?”

In the light of recent mass shootings, such as the one in Uvalde, Texas, the candidates were asked what measures, if any, they would support in order to curb gun violence.

“Recent events have made this question even more important. I think it’s important to start with the idea that what we want is for guns to be kept from those who intend harm. Whether that’s to themselves or to others,” Hill said. “In particular, a safe storage law is very important to keep guns out of hands that are too young or, unfortunately, too dangerous. We also need to strengthen intimate partners or domestic violence (legislation) to make sure that — the term is extreme risk or red flag — that if folks have indications of that, we need to keep guns out of those hands.”

Wagner weighed in on the issue, saying, “I’m completely pro-Second Amendment. The violence that is out there and the heartache that is out there, you can’t legislate that morality on anybody. We have to make a stand, we have to care about our neighbors. I’m a former law enforcement officer, I’m well aware of a lot of stuff. If anything, I d get rid of some of them (gun laws).”

“I would consider myself to be a Second Amendment advocate in its strictest sense,” Boogren said. “I’m an avid hunter. I’m very supportive of the bipartisan federal legislation that was just passed. It contains a lot of common sense things that anybody with common sense can accept as not an infringement in their constitutional rights. I’m not coming after your gun. But I am coming after the unfettered access for anyone to have one.”

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242, or rcrouch@miningjournal.net.