Black Chamber hosting Senate, Assembly candidate forum

MILWAUKEE -- Wisconsin state Senate and Assembly candidates met with voters Wednesday evening, July 25th during a "Meet the Candidates" forum.

The Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce forum took place at "Coffee Makes U Black" cafe on North Teutonia Avenue.

Candidates from Assembly districts 10, 11, 12, 17 and 18 took part, along with Senate candidates in districts 4 and 6.

In Senate District 6, there's no Republican on the ballot, and there hasn't been for a while. Thus, the primary election is the only election.

Wednesday evening, Democrats fought to be the person who will represent one of Wisconsin's poorest districts, appealing to northwest Milwaukee's African-American community.

The District 6 Senate seat is being vacated by Spencer Coggs, who is stepping down for his new role as Milwaukee County Treasurer.

On the ballot is Coggs' cousin, state Representative Elizabeth Coggs, who spoke Wednesday night about funding public transit.

"We need a regional transit authority in Milwaukee County. We need to be able to get people to their jobs," Coggs said.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Michael Mayo and pastoral care professional Allyn Monroe Swan spoke about district crime.

"When you have officers, you have neighbors, you have peer pressure, peer counselors out there -- that violence stops within that neighborhood," Mayo said.

"Putting pressure to enforce that law enforcement takes place properly in the city," Swan said.

Also running for the seat are County Supervisor Nikiya Harris and business owner Delta Triplett.

"I will certainly focus my attention on making sure we increase minimum wage," Harris said.

"Absolutely it's gonna be jobs number one," Triplett said.

Spencer Coggs says his district wants a senator who will treat people equally.

"There are some really great parts of the district and then there's really some squalored parts, and they want to know if the district is gonna be held accountable to treat everybody evenly," Coggs said.

District 6 is such a heavily Democratic area that state Senator Coggs says he never faced a Republican during his three terms.

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