North Philly pastor enters the race for mayor

A North Philadelphia pastor says he plans to run for mayor. 

The Rev. Keith Goodman of the North Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church officially announced his bid, saying he’s the candidate for those who doesn’t see anyone in the race who gets what they are going through.

 “I think that I have something,” he said, as he became the seventh candidate, and fourth African-American, in the field. “I have the energy the passion the vision and the ability to get in the race and offer something to the citizens of Philadelphia.”

 Goodman says he wants to improve the city by using a different way of thinking about how government can serve the ordinary person.

“We have some arcane and Byzantine ways about us,” he told WHYY/NewsWorks in an interview. “We can improve everything in the city if we’re willing to look at what’s working and multiply it and what’s not working and figure out how can we improve it.”

 Goodman said churches will be his first stop in the quest for support.

No sooner had the clergyman announced his bid than other campaigns raised questions about whether he meets the Home Rule Charter’s requirement that a mayoral candidate have lived in the city for three years.  Goodman concedes he moved back to Philly from Chester this year, but says he previously lived in the city for more than three years, which in his view satisifies the charter.   Goodman made a failed bid for Chester City Council in 2005.

Three candidates – state Sen. Anthony Williams, former PGW official Doug Oliver and former state senator Milton street – are African-American.  The others are former district attorney Lynne Abraham, former councilman Jim Kenney and former judge Nelson Diaz.