The upcoming primary election is in just a few days, and we want to make sure you know who you’re voting for. As your election authority, we want to make sure you're informed on the candidates, and their stances on the issues important to you.

Candidates for the north woods 34th Assembly District have been hard at work getting their names out to those in that area. The district contains parts of Vilas, Forest, Florence, and Oneida counties.

On the Republican side, there are two candidates running. Alex Young and Rob Swearingen. We had a chance to speak with Swearingen about his hopes for candidacy.

Swearingen, who owns a Rhinelander supper club, and is the President of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, says he he's hopeful voters will put him to work bringing jobs to the north woods.
"I think that we have to attract industry, and I think that the north woods might be one of best kept secrets in Wisconsin. Its a great place to live, work, retire, but we also need to let the industry people know they can come up here and hopefully provide some jobs to people in the north woods."

Swearingen's contender, Rhinelander city council president Alex Young declined to comment on the election.

Also hoping to make their way through the primary election in the north woods are two Democratic candidates.Roberta Retrum is treasurer of the Villas County Democratic party

Retrum says she's unhappy with the direction of our state leaders, and will push for changes to be made if she is elected.
"I think one of the first things that should be done is to change that power that we've given the Governor. No one should have that much power whether Democrat or republican."

Merlin Van Buren has decided to try for the assembly seat again following a loss to Dan Meyer in 2010. Van Buren says if elected, he would focus on education, and again, he believes the Governor has moved us backwards. "The biggest thing I’d like to change is the big cuts we made to education two years ago. Restore some of that funding so our schools can hire a few more teachers. We need to get the class sizes back in line."

The winning candidate in each race will face independent candidates Todd Albano and Kevin Fitzpatrick.