Mayoral candidates gear up campaigns
Mayoral candidates Ben Smith and Jamie Lee Goehring are gearing up for busy campaigns leading up to November's election.
Smith, the Republican candidate, defeated incumbent Tom Donaldson and Michael Walter in the primary on Tuesday, while Goehring, the Democratic candidate, ran unopposed.
Both will run what Goehring called a “boots to the ground” campaign. While they acknowledge the importance of social media and advertising, they are primarily focused on getting out and meeting constituents.
“I'm not a person to go around and make promises,” Smith said. “I'm certainly not going to tell people what they want to hear to get elected, but my goal is to find out what individuals are most concerned about.”
Goehring and her campaign team have a plan to go door to door around each neighborhood in the city to reach out to as many people as possible.
“I like it that way because then it's giving the community the chance to be involved,” she said.
The two candidates also have similar approaches to how they'll collaborate with their teams. Goehring has about 10 people working with her to help develop her website, perform multimedia tasks and plan events.
“I'm not a micromanager,” she said. “I delegate, so we all come together with cohesive ideas as to how to get the information out quickly and effectively.”
Smith likewise has a group of people who believe in his cause.
“I've already surrounded myself with individuals who are smart, who are intelligent about the (city) matters,” he said.
Smith is planning lunch-ins to meet and talk about issues with citizens, while Goehring is planning a fundraiser to get her message out.
Goehring's campaign focuses include combating the heroin problem by implementing early intervention programs into schools and working with District Attorney Richard Goldinger, police and community members to stop drug trafficking.She also wants to improve Butler's business base by changing zoning to make it easier for new businesses to come to Butler, and she said she will work to retain Butler's current businesses by reducing the business privilege tax.Smith aims to proactively recruit businesses to the downtown area. He believes a strong business base downtown will increase revenue and in turn strengthen Butler's neighborhoods by giving them more positive options in their community.He also wants to help the community by instituting free financial literacy tutorials for all residents of Butler, and he wants to utilize the fire department to generate revenue with tasks such as home inspections.Both candidates are mindful of the nation's currently turbulent political landscape, and acknowledge that it could have some effect on the partisan election race.However, their main focus is Butler. Smith noted that people should place their energy in what's specifically going on in the community, while Goehring said that national events have caused people to be more politically motivated.As for costs, neither candidate wants to amass funds to run their campaign. Smith said he doesn't know yet how much his campaign will cost.“I'm still evaluating some of that,” he said. “I think it's going to be grassroots. I don't intend on throwing all sorts of money at everything.”Goehring estimated campaign costs at between $6,000 and $12,000. She said she would rather spend money on helping her community.“A dollar spent toward helping somebody else is more important than a dollar spent on a campaign sign that is sitting in the yard,” she said.
