Yesterday Steve appeared on WACH Fox's "Good Day" with Ashleigh Messervy.  Check out his interview below:

Steve just sent the following email inviting folks to join the "Benjamins" for Benjamin grassroots fundraising campaign:

Laurin --

Today we're excited to launch our "Benjamins" for Benjamin grassroots fundraising campaign, and I'd like to invite you to take part in it.

Here's how it works. Click here to create your personalized fundraising page.  Set your own fundraising goal at whatever dollar amount you're comfortable, whether it's $25, $100, $1000, or more!  Reach out to your friends and family, send them the link to your page, and monitor your account as you move closer and closer to your goal.

We are facing tough, well-funded opposition in our campaign to build a better local government and revitalize Columbia.  It is critical that we channel our grassroots support to ensure we have the resources we need to spread our positive message and vision for the future of our city.

Will you create a personal fundraising page?

We'll be tracking the success of our "Benjamins" for Benjamin campaign, and at the end of the year, we'll honor our top grassroots fundraisers.  And we're not just looking for those who've raised the most money.  We'll also honor those who've recruited the most donors.  We want our team to reach all corners of Columbia -- and beyond!

Thank you so much for all of your support thus far, and I hope you'll join "Benjamins" for Benjamin.  Working together, we can not only win the mayoral election in April, but we can bring much needed change to the city we love.

Many thanks,

Yesterday Steve held a press conference calling on Columbia's city council to restore funding for local firefighters after the recent closing of two Columbia fire stations. 

“I opposed that decision because I believed, as I still believe, that you don’t balance the budget on the backs of our first responders,” Steve said. “You don’t play politics with firefighters’ lives.”

View press coverage of the event in our news section, and in the extended blog entry, you can check out the YouTube video from the event that was captured by Adam Beam of The State newspaper.

Today Steve Benjamin sent the following email:

Dear Friend,

I am running for mayor of Columbia, and I want you to be among the first to know.

In the city elections just eight months away, we will face a clear choice -- change or more of the same in Columbia. As a business leader, a resident of Columbia for over twenty years, and a member of dozens of community boards, I have dedicated my life to bringing about real and dramatic change in my community. That's what I intend to do as the next mayor of our state's capital city. I'll focus on bringing people together, and, when necessary, blowing past the bureaucracy and holding people accountable.