MARQUETTE -- It's crunch time.  And Friday night, candidates running for U.S. House of Representatives, Michigan Senate, and Michigan House of Representatives were invited to the Peter White Public Library in Marquette to talk children and family issues.

Some familiar names:  Republican candidate for Michigan’s 1^st Congressional District Dan Benishek, Republican candidate for the 38^th Senate District Tom Casperson, and Democratic candidate for the 38^th Senate District Mike Lahti, were on hand.

"It's really critically important that people have an opportunity to get to know these people and to find out who they are and how they feel about issues that are important to the average person in the community," said Paul Olson, Chair of the Upper Peninsula Children’s Coalition.

One issue that got particularly heated was equal pay for women.

"I remember it was in the House a couple years ago.  Tom, you got up and made a speech saying that equal pay for equal work was socialism," Lahti said.

"I’m going to take this opportunity real quick to make sure the record's perfectly clear,” said Casperson.  “It is socialism when the government starts setting wages for the private sector, and I believe it's illegal and wrong if you're discriminated against because of your sex, period."

Throughout the course of the forum, many of the comments reverted back to the big issue this election season:  the economy.

“I never ran for anything before I got into this race simply because I couldn't believe that they would pass that stimulus bill where they will spend a trillion dollars of our hard earned money, our children’s tax dollars on a bill that nobody even read," Benishek said.

Although this was a candidate forum to discuss child and family issues, it was clear Michigan’s sagging economy is the big issue on the minds of voters and candidates.