Seven legislative candidates tried to inch a little closer to sitting in Mike Jaros' state representative seat this evening.
Candidates for the state House seven-"B" district will took part in a forum at Morgan Park's Good Fellowship Community Center.
Joel Runck gives us a breakdown of the candidates.

Right off, the top, the first question posed to the state house 7-B candidates asked about their qualifications and why they're seeking office.
D-F-L candidate Brandon Clokey, an outreach coordinator for the Duluth Fatherhood project received the microphone first.

"I know exactly what it's like to be a minority and not be heard. I know what it's like to be low income," Clokey said.

Ophthalmologist, Daniel Maryland answered next and cited his experience in healthcare as his chief qualification.

"My primary interest and reason I'm running is because I feel that personal health issues are becoming a very great part of our society especially in this district," Maryland said.

D-F-L candidate and AFSCME representative Marsh Stenersen followed and took aim at party principles.

"I thought I that I saw too many democrats not being true to democratic to democratic values and not social and economic justice," Stenersen said.

Citing his experience as president of the Duluth City Council, Roger Reinert tried to spin the city's budget woes to his advantage.

"Many of the very, very difficult choices we were presented with were bad choice from bad choice-and may of them were driven from decisions made in St. Paul," Reinert said.

Allan Kehr, engineer and the lone Republican candidate in the 7B race cited a power struggle between citizens and government.

"What we've wittnessed is a shift in power away from the people and local units of government to the state and federal levels-so I would like to see that reversed," Kehr said.

Finishing the first round of questioning was the Independent candidate-Jay Cole.

"I worked in the media, in the news business for about 20 years and working in that business, you get experience and exposed to a lot of different things that a lot of people are not exposed to," Cole said.

Organizers of the forum say the primary election is September 9th.