  Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 1532 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 66.238.170.39 |
Who is Keith B. Butler? He's not Alonzo Bates By Betty DeRamus / The Detroit News Without much sweat or even a sip of steroids, Detroit City Council candidate Keith B. Butler banged the ball out of the political park on Tuesday: He's one of 18 Detroiters who'll slug it out for a council seat this fall. My only question is this: Who is Keith B. Butler? His name didn't show up on the sides of any buses or billboards, and if he gave any speeches or smiled through any commercials I missed them. Yet he came in 14th among the 18 candidates who survived the primary. That means he racked up more votes than Thomas Stallworth III, the son of a state legislator; Roy McCalister Jr., lieutenant in the Detroit Police Department's investigative operations division; Lamar Lemmons III, an experienced legislator; Loren Monroe, an attorney, CPA and former treasurer for the state of Michigan; Ralph Simpson, a lawyer in private practice who is on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union; well-known businessman Otis Knapp Lee; and Sarah Snow, who had experience as a city governmental analyst and the endorsement of former senator, ambassador and presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun. But who is Keith B. Butler and why did more than 18,000 Detroiters choose him as their legislative champion? If you think he's the senior pastor and founder of Southfield-based Word of Faith International Christian Center Church, you're wrong. You're mixing him up with the Rev. Keith A. Butler, pastor and founder of the Southfield church and a former Detroit City Council member. Keith B. Butler, according to The Detroit News questionnaire he filled out, works for the city of Detroit in communications and has a master's in educational media/instructional technology. He believes much of the city's deficit is due to outsourcing jobs that eventually have to be redone by city departments. He also thinks Detroit needs to re-establish residency requirements, stop providing free training to outside police departments and quit granting "big tax breaks" to big businesses to encourage them to build in the city. Keith B. Butler feels the City Council is "too patient with this administration and is afraid to call it to task. They allow the mayor to send representatives in his place to council meetings he should attend." He also supports a merger between the Detroit Department of Transportation and Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, or SMART, with the federal government contributing 20 percent of the financing for the merger and the city and suburbia each kicking in 40 percent. My only question is this: How many of the thousands of people who voted for Keith B. Butler had any idea where he stood on these or any other issues and how many were simply swayed, or perhaps seduced, by what they mistook for yet another familiar political name? Oh, well, the man is in the field now, warming up for the big game in November. The good news is that besides gaining more votes than many better-known and better-financed candidates, he finished ahead of the City Council's perennial bad boy, Alonzo Bates, who came in 16th. Whoever Keith B. Butler is and whatever his agenda, I know this much for sure: He's bound to be better than Bates. http://www.detnews.com/2005/me tro/0508/06/B01-270532.htm | ||
1honey Member Username: 1honey Post Number: 541 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 208.39.170.77 |
Thanks Ltorivia485. I didn't vote for him, but I think that alot of folks thought that was Rev. He has interesting ideas, might give him a vote come November. | ||
Ltorivia485 Member Username: Ltorivia485 Post Number: 1535 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 24.221.73.69 |
Just let's you know that people still vote on name recognition. Too bad people didn't realize that the REAL Keith Butler is running for U.S. Senate (and please do not vote for him.) |
