Randall Woodfin to Run for Mayor of Birmingham

 ========= Old Image Removed =========1637531444 
1471824086

While many voters are thinking about the 2016 elections, there’s been a major new development in the 2017 Birmingham mayoral race: assistant city attorney and school board member Randall Woodfin told WBHM late Sunday that he will run for mayor.

Woodfin says he wants to “revitalize the way politics are done in Birmingham” and to “make the city more transparent with our tax dollars.” And he thinks Birmingham voters “see 2017 as a change election.”

Woodfin has been a city attorney for seven years. He’s been on the school board for three years, serving most of that time as board president. The 35-year-old calls himself “young, but not new.”

“City Hall needs a reset button,” he says. “We need someone who’ll both support our small businesses and put our younger generation first.” He mentioned uneven quality of life across Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods and the perception that, in some parts of town, “people aren’t safe on their own porches.”

Woodfin’s campaign is set to officially kick off Saturday morning at the North Birmingham Recreation Center, very close to where he went to elementary school.

A spokesperson for incumbent Mayor William Bell said Sunday that Bell will run in the 2017 election.

Candidates for mayor can start raising money one year before the election. That’s today, August 22.

 

How do you solve a crime at a retirement home? Get ‘A Man on the Inside’

Michael Schur wrote for the The Office and created The Good Place. His new show for Netflix features Ted Danson as a widowed retiree who goes undercover in a retirement community.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who took aim at crypto industry, to step down in January

Gensler said he would step down on Jan. 20, when Donald Trump will inaugurated as the next president. Gensler took big enforcement actions against the crypto industry.

Russia launched an experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, the U.S. says

Ukraine raised alarm suggesting Russia may have used an intercontinental ballistic missile to hit the city of Dnipro, but the U.S. National Security Council does not believe it was an ICBM.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdraws as Trump’s attorney general nominee

Allegations of sex trafficking and drug use had stirred controversy over Matt Gaetz's nomination as attorney general.

This year’s FAFSA is officially open. Early review says it’s ‘a piece of cake’

The FAFSA form is now open to students hoping to get help paying for college in the 2025-26 academic year. Students can expect a much smoother process compared to the last cycle.

He was stuck in a hospital for 8 months. How states can fail people with disabilities

In Georgia and other states, the federal government oversees the treatment of people with mental illness and developmental disabilities, because the states have been unable to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the subsequent Olmstead ruling.

More Front Page Coverage