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Jeffco Commissioner Lashunda Scales Launches Campaign to Become Birmingham Mayor

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Lasunda Scales is a two-term Jefferson County Commissioner and former Birmingham council member. (FILE)

By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times

Weeks after signs proclaiming “Lashunda Scales for Mayor” appeared in some areas of the city and months after several candidates for Birmingham’s highest elected office declared a run, Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales on Tuesday announced her campaign for the seat.

With three months until the August 26 election Scales joins a race that already includes incumbent mayor Randall Woodfin, who defeated Scales in 2021; State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, longtime activist Kamau Afrika, pastor and non-profit executive Frank Woodson.

“I recognize that 47 percent of my commission district is Birmingham and it’s dying …,” said Scales, from the front porch of an abandoned house in Birmingham’s Collegeville neighborhood. “I know that Birmingham can be a great place, we can go back to being number one, we can go back to having a quality of life, but it’s going to require work, it’s going to require a leader who is going to lead our community in the right direction.”

Scales, a two-term county commissioner and former Birmingham council member, said she is seeking the office of mayor because the city has lost its way.

“We want to make sure that people are aware that help is on the way,” she said. “We’re not talking doom and gloom, but we are talking about facts along with solutions so we can move our city forward in the right direction.”

Scales said she chose the abandoned structure in Collegeville to announce her campaign because blight still plagues the city.

“When I talked about the blight four years ago, I am standing in front of a community that has blocks and blocks of structures that are still in blight,” she said. “I recognize that when our crime rate goes up and our people are leaving, that’s what makes you say listen, ‘I’ve got to be part of the solution and not the problem,’ but I don’t have the power. The mayor has the power. Whoever sits in the seat or office of mayor has the power to be able to fix the city’s problems … so my decision is based upon I haven’t seen any results.”