Two Democratic candidates for commissioner of Cook County’s 13th District debated forest preservation issues, health care and overcrowding of Cook County jails Wednesday night at the Unitarian Church in Evanston.

Less then two weeks before the Democratic primary elections, Larry Suffredin and incumbent Commissioner Calvin Sutker debated to win a place on the Democratic ticket in order to run for the Cook County board in November.

The 17-member board oversees the county government and makes decisions about the Cook County Hospital, the Forest Preserve District and the Mosquito Abatement District. The 13th District includes all of Evanston and Niles Township, most of New Trier Township and the 49th and 50th Wards of Chicago as well as parts of Northbrook and Niles.

“I want to finish what I think is still unfinished,” Sutker said.

Suffredin said he wants the office because he wants to change the government.

“Cook County is a stealth government,” he said. “It is a government we don’t know anything about.”

At the debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, members of the audience anonymously submitted questions. Some of the questions dealt with the Cook County forest preserve. Sutker, who ran for president of the Cook County board several years ago and lost to John Stroger, current president, said his “personal passion” is the forest preserves.

But Suffredin, an Evanston resident, lawyer and lobbyist, said the county board has not maintained the forest preserves well.

The candidates disagreed about whether or not forest preserve golf courses should be made private.

Suffredin said he favored privatization because the county lost $1.5 million from the golf courses last year. But Sutker said he wants seniors and others to be able to afford to play golf.

“We are not in the money-making business, we are in the recreation business,” Sutker said.

Although the candidates generally focused on the issues, much of their discussion consisted of back-and-forth sniping, with each candidate accusing the other of misleading the public.

Both candidates agreed on the need for a separate court to hear domestic violence cases. But they disagreed about the location, with Sutker favoring Chicago’s Richard Daley Center and Suffredin supporting a different location.

Suffredin also said the 13th District needs a health clinic, since the closest one to the Evanston area is Palatine. Suffredin criticized Sutker for not bringing a clinic closer to Evanston during his tenure on the board.

The Democratic primary elections will be held March 19.