Meet the Democratic candidates running for Louisville mayor
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Greg Fischer has been Louisville’s mayor since 2010, and now the race to replace him is a crowded one. Soon, the city will find out who will win the primary elections.
It’s a crowded field on the Democrat side of the ballot. There are eight people all vying to be the leader of Louisville.
Louisville has had a Democratic mayor since 1969. If that trend continues, one of the following eight names will be Mayor of Louisville come November.
WAVE News sat down with the candidates to see where they stand on the important issues.
There’s a common theme among the candidates. They all say Louisville is ready for change, but for what kind of change?
The city is consistently in the top 10 for homicide rates in the country, and public safety is at the forefront of everyone’s campaign.
“It starts with a neighborhood-based policing model,” candidate David Nicholson said. “An office of victim services and an office of victim violent crime fatality review.”
Some, like candidate Skylar Graudick, feel facing the violence head on is the best course of action.
“Upstream solutions, like social workers, getting people like that involved, that is down the line work,” Graudick said. “Right now we need police officers to aggressively target the people who are doing violent crimes.”
Others feel it’s an economic issue, and that they need to start there to make lasting change.
“One of the reasons I introduced a plan for universal basic income, fare-free transit, and universal pre-K,” candidate Timothy Findley said “It’s because I understand, at the root cause of many of these violent issues, it’s an economic disparity.”
The many rundown buildings in Louisville might be the solution some of the candidates are looking for.
“They will be fixed where the people can afford to buy those on a monthly payment plan,” candidate Anthony Oxendine said. “They would not have to show their finances to be able to buy one and we will help them as a city, a community to come together and fix these houses up.”
The next step after the renovations is filling them with people. Candidate Colin Hardin has an idea for that.
“So I would take offenders, and I would take homeless people, and we would get into these houses,” Hardin said. “Many of them could be saved, many could be renovated and restored. What couldn’t be would be demolished and we would move forward with the plan.”
Louisville isn’t the only city facing many of these problems. Racial inequality and the lack of diversity is a nationwide problem that the mayoral hopefuls are hoping to address here.
“My administration will have people from across the entire city from all different backgrounds with experiences very differently that mine,” candidate Craig Greenberg said. “And they will be empowered to make the meaningful change that Louisville expects and deserves right now.”
They feel it’s important that people who are impacted by policy are a part of the solutions.
“Making sure that boards and commissions are equally balanced that we have people from different neighborhoods, and different communities, and different walks of life who are helping in the decision making,” Shameka Parrish-Wright said.
We were unable to connect with Sergio Lopez, who is also running in the Democratic Primary for Mayor.
To view Louisville’s Republican mayoral candidates, click or tap here.
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