BATON ROUGE - With less than two months until the Nov. 5 election, two East Baton Rouge Parish mayoral debates are happening this week.

According to the latest poll, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is leading the race with 29 percent of the votes while Sid Edwards and Ted James are tied at 23 percent.

Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church is hosting its debate on Monday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m. The debate will be monitored by Tony King, the president of Baton Rouge's chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. 

"We feel like it is our responsibility to inform our people in ways that give them a sense of ownership in what takes place in their community. It's one thing to hear these answers that are given from other aspects of the community. It's another thing when the candidates are invited to come and address us directly and we want to take advantage of that," Rev. Fred Jeff Smith said.

Another debate will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 5:30 p.m. at Southern University.

WBRZ will also be moderating the Baton Rouge Area Chamber's Mayoral Candidate Forum broadcast on Channel 2 and WBRZ+. Details have yet to be finalized after it was postponed due to Hurricane Francine's landfall.