BIRMINGHAM, AL - No candidate received more votes for mayor of Birmingham on August 22 than Randall Woodfin. That is the good news for the Woodfin campaign. The bad news is that incumbent William Bell received enough of the vote to force a runoff Oct. 3, a position Bell has been in before. Bell won the runoff in 2009 against Patrick Cooper after Cooper received more than 40 percent of the vote in the general election. Woodfin, however, unlike Cooper in 2009, has received support from several of the candidates he ran against in August including support from third place finisher Chris Woods - which might bode well for the former Birmingham Board of Education president. Patch caught up with Woodfin to find out where his campaign stands now that the race for mayor is down to just two candidates.

You received more votes than any other candidate. I know you were hoping for a runoff, but was that kind of voter support surprising? I was not surprised. I ran a progressive grassroots campaign that was inspired by the people and their belief that they deserved better. My campaign team knocked on over 40,000 doors and made 35,000 phone calls to Birmingham voters over the last year. I knew that Birmingham voters felt that William Bell failed to keep neighborhoods safe, create jobs, or commit to improving neighborhoods outside of downtown. Again, I was not surprised.

What about your platform do you feel speaks to Birmingham voters? Many Birmingham voters were moved by my commitment to working collaboratively with the City Council and investing in the other 98 neighborhoods just as much as downtown. Almost every voter my campaign spoke with felt that the current administration has lost its way by placing too much focus on big ticket projects instead of delivering basic, quality services such as street paving and sidewalk repair, demolishing abandoned buildings, and cutting overgrown lots across the city. Listening, cooperation, and an assurance of quality services resonates most with Birmingham voters.

There was a poor turnout for this election, what can be done to make sure voters do not stay home during the runoff? My campaign has a strong message and policy platform that resonates with Birmingham voters. Moreover, my dedicated team and volunteers and I must continue the hard work we have been doing over the last year – knocking on doors, making phone calls, hosting community events, and engaging voters through social media. We've seen a substantial uptick in volunteer interest on my campaign, and I fully intend to pick up the pace on all forms of voter engagement with the objective of improving turnout.

What do you feel distinguishes you most from Mayor Bell?

Everything. As former president of the school board, I listened and worked collaboratively with my colleagues to get our schools off of probation, raise additional revenue for more pre-K classes, prevent the spread of charter schools, and led the process of hiring a new superintendent. William Bell, on the other hand, has never had a positive working relationship with the city council, including an embarrassing altercation with Councilman Lundy that generated national headlines. As president of the school board, my colleagues and I embraced transparency, and were open and honest with parents and teachers. In stark contrast, William Bell has refused on a number of occasions to share information on his travel expenditures on the taxpayer's dime.

Additionally, my tenure leading the school board was scandal free. That cannot be said about Bell's past seven years in the office. Here are just a few scandals that directly or indirectly implicated Bell over the past few years: Bell's top ally in Montgomery took bribes from companies that polluted North Birmingham, Bell's brother Michael alleged involvement in a pay-to-play scandal with the BCIA, and there is an ongoing federal investigation into Birmingham Water Works. Finally, I have actually put forth a comprehensive plan for my vision for moving Birmingham forward; Mayor Bell has not. Mayor Bell can only tell voters what he's done, which can easily be boiled down to executing on Larry Langford's vision for downtown and a so-called "Green Wave" initiative to cut overgrown lots that only happened because he was running for reelection. The Mayor's Office should be an all-year round operation that is not just functional during an election year like William Bell has done.