With a consequential midterm election quickly approaching, University of Wisconsin student political leaders held an informational session Thursday night to debate and further educate UW voters on the ins and outs of the election.

At a small gathering in the lobby of the Towers on State Street, representatives from College Democrats and College Republicans spoke to about a dozen students about the significance of the upcoming Nov. 2 midterm election.

The session kicked off with a spirited exchange about Wisconsin Senatorial candidates Russ Feingold and Ron Johnson, who both sides attacked for comments made in the past and for either a lack or overload of experience in public service.

College Democrats Chair Evan Giesemann said Feingold’s record in the Senate and as a constitutional scholar should encourage Wisconsin voters to re-elect him for a fourth term.

“The contrast…could not be more clear,” Giesemann said. “The Democrats… have shown that they know how to lead.”

However, College Republicans Chair Stephen Duerst and representative Johnny Koremenos said Republican candidate Ron Johnson, who owns a plastics company in Oshkosh, deserves a seat in the Senate because of his experience in business, which they said reflects how government should be run.

They said Feingold is a “career politician” since he has served in the Senate for nearly two decades and, prior to his 1992 election as U.S. Senator, served in the State Legislature.

“If you’re not a business owner, you don’t understand how business operates,” Koremenos said. “Russ Feingold can have as many listening sessions in as many counties as he wants, but until he actually enacts the policies that the people in the state want to see, I think it puts him as a person who’s out of touch with the state.”

Much of the discussion following the senatorial and gubernatorial debating focused on social issues including birth control and homosexual marriage and unions, which both Duerst and Koremenos said could change with generational change in the Republican Party.

Giesemann said Pro Life Wisconsin, a conservative activist group, endorsed gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker for the first time in several elections.

He added Walker’s views support allowing pharmacists to deny women birth control for their own moral reasons and that he refuses to endorse any form of contraception barring the rhythm method.

Koremenos said while he does not support that specific position, he believes pharmacists would have the right to make up their own minds and solve the problem in the private sector.

Additionally, Duerst said many other conservatives at UW have had their views regarding gays and lesbians changed as a result of their university education.

“My UW education has broadened my worldview, and that is one issue in which it has done so,” Duerst said.

UW freshman David Silberman, who said he previously was unfamiliar with Wisconsin politics since he grew up in New Jersey, said the session helped educate him on the nuances of the senatorial and gubernatorial races.

“I am now more familiar with…the opposing sides, and I definitely know where I’m going to cast my vote,” Silberman said. “They definitely did a good job of defining their arguments and bringing the global issues…and making them relevant to the state of Wisconsin.”