Randall Woodfin to Run for Mayor of Birmingham

 ========= Old Image Removed =========1664972781 
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.

 

Why Gen Z protesters worldwide are flying an anime pirate flag

Gen Z protesters from Indonesia and Nepal to Madagascar and Morocco, are rallying behind an unexpected banner: a grinning skull in a straw hat.

What to expect as Syria holds first parliamentary elections since Assad’s ouster

Syria is holding parliamentary elections on Sunday for the first time since the fall of the country's longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, who was unseated in a rebel offensive in December.

Some Democrats share Trump’s goal of forcing more homeless people into medical care

President Trump says one part of the answer to homelessness is civil commitment and forced medical care. Some Democrats agree.

Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s National Guard deployment to Portland

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Ore., which the president had ordered over the objections of local leaders.

Largest US Lutheran denomination installs first Black presiding bishop

Rev. Yehiel Curry succeeds Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who served for 12 years and was the first woman to lead the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

National parks caught in the crosshairs of government shutdown

National parks across the country face conflicting demands and uncertainty as a result of the ongoing federal funding dispute.

More Front Page Coverage