FYI, here’s the official word I got from Steve Benjamin today:
Dear Friend,
I am running for mayor of Columbia, and I want you to be among the first to know.
In the city elections just eight months away, we will face a clear choice – change or more of the same in Columbia. As a business leader, a resident of Columbia for over twenty years, and a member of dozens of community boards, I have dedicated my life to bringing about real and dramatic change in my community. That’s what I intend to do as the next mayor of our state’s capital city. I’ll focus on bringing people together, and, when necessary, blowing past the bureaucracy and holding people accountable.
I hope you will join our campaign to change the way our city does business.
The single most important priority right is creating and attracting jobs. With all that Columbia has to offer, we should be doing better than the rest of the country when it comes to jobs – not trailing behind. And we can’t be content with just creating jobs in one part of the city. Every neighborhood is important and has a role to play, and each neighborhood deserves our attention.
My plan will turn Columbia around by focusing on the basics:
• Making sure Columbia is open and friendly to business and to create new jobs for the future.
• Bringing accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility to City Hall.
• Cutting wasteful spending and turning our city’s deficit into a balanced budget.
• Getting our first responders the resources they need.
• Teaming up with law enforcement to crack down on gang violence and keeping our families and businesses safe from crime.
• Listening to the needs of every community in our city.I will be a strong mayor, demanding results and accepting responsibility for what happens in our city.
I invite you to visit us online by clicking here. Be sure to sign up to receive campaign developments and strategy updates. Our full website is in the works and will be unveiled soon.I look forward to sharing my ideas and vision with you over the coming months, and I welcome your input, your suggestions, your prayers, and your support.
Thank you, and let’s get to work.
Steve Benjamin
For more information, here’s what The State had on Steve’s candidacy today, and here’s the column I wrote on the subject shortly before I left the aforementioned newspaper. I made James Joyce allusions and everything…
Related Posts
Is he going to open an Advance America location next to the Housing Alliance center?
I can’t stand going to a politician’s website and finding NOTHING except a solicitation for money. You wrote of some of his positions but if he has a vision for his leadership, that’s the FIRST thing that should be provided on his website.
Unimpressive so far
Any candidate needs to get beyond vague pronouncements about what he wants, or hopes to do, and tell us HOW he plans to do it, what it will COST, and what other services he will programs or reduce in order to pay for new ones.
Having worked for Jim Hodges starts Benjamin off in the negative.
Here’s the Advance America expertise he can share with those in need in Columbia. http://www.advanceamerica.net/apply-for-a-loan/fees/SC The APR for a $300 loan is 391%.
This will be a litmus test for Warren Bolton of THE STATE, self-professed crusader against payday lenders.
How long will it take Bolton to find excuses to forget about usury lending to poor blacks, in order to back a smooth-imaged black candidate who might win office?
I think Steve Benjamin is the man for the moment. I’ve known and respected him for years and I’m glad to see that a man with some respect and appreciation for law enforcement and first responders is joining the race. Best of luck, Steve!
I have to agree with Lee! (It took me 5 attempts to hit 8 attempts to hit the comment button to actually share this.)
Benjamin explained that his time at AA provided him valuable business experience – experience making lots of money off of people in need.
see, at first it was 5 then 8…I am still bewildered…
Here’s a meaty, important issue facing the Midlands and no one is discussing it. Bolton surely has a dog in this fight and it should be one that bites Benjamin in the butt!