PROGRAM SUCCESS – MAY 2010
PAGE 9
Steve Benjamin Elected Columbia’s First Black Mayor
The city of Columbia, South Carolina elected its first Black
mayor Tuesday, April 20, 2010. Steve Benjamin, a lawyer
and lobbyist, defeated former Columbia City Councilman
Kirkman Finlay III in a runoff election, getting about 55
percent of the vote to Finlay’s 45 percent.
“The people of Columbia spoke, and together we made
history,” Benjamin said to a crowd of thousands at
Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. “We made
history today, not because of race. We made history because
p e o p l e
responded
to
a
message of
unity, hope
a
n
d
promise.
We are one
city. One
Columbia.”
A
n
unexpected
2,000 more
v o t e r s
turned out
Tuesday
than
the
recordsetting 17,137 who voted April 6. Thirty-one percent of
registered voters, or 19,427 people, cast ballots. Finlay, who
is white, won the Shandon precincts that third-place finisher
Steve Morrison carried in the April 6 general election, but
mostly by modest margins. But in the north and east
Columbia precincts, Benjamin dominated.
At Greenview where 701 voters went to the polls, only six
did not vote for Benjamin. And on the campus of Benedict
College, the voters in Ward 8, including students, showed up
and represented with 439 voters with four votes going to
Finlay. Just two weeks ago, only 217 voted at the precinct.
Benjamin is better known outside of Columbia as the lawyer
who helped radio host Tom Joyner last year win a
posthumous pardon from the state for two great-uncles who
were wrongly convicted and executed of a slaying they did
not commit.
The mayor’s job in Columbia is actually a part-time position.
Benjamin will be paid $17,500 and will be one vote on the
City Council. “Columbia has a weak mayor system. The
mayor is more of a symbolic head of the city with the city
manager serving as the administrator,” said Todd Shaw, a
political science professor at the University of South
Carolina. “The mayor’s power comes in his use of the bully
pulpit and his ability to build coalitions,” Shaw told
BlackAmericaweb.com.
Columbia faces several challenges. Like many local and
state governments across the country, there is a pending
financial crisis. There are also concerns about economic
development and shoring up the city’s infrastructure.
Benjamin will replace Bob Coble, who was mayor for 20
years and
decided not
to
run
again.
With Coble
out of the
race
and
Benjamin
geared up
with
a
campaign
mobilized
l i k e
President
O b a m a ’s
race for the
W h i t e
House, he
was able to win, Shaw said. But Columbia has lagged behind
other major Southern cities in electing a Black mayor.
“Blacks did not hold a majority and whites wanted to hold on
to their dominance,” said Rickey Hill, who formerly headed
the Political Science Department at South Carolina State
University.
In other Southern cities, Black mayors began being elected
in the 1970s and 1980s, Hill told BlackAmericaweb.com.
“Blacks organized themselves and worked together,” Hill
said. Benjamin also had significant crossover votes. In most
boxes where he did not win, the gap was not as wide as the
gap in boxes where his opponent lost, according to unofficial
voting results.