Earnest Flowers (Photo: Facebook)

"I'm only going to put money into evidence-based projects," Earnest Flowers, the chairman of the fairly powerful Elmer H. Blackburne Democratic Club in southeast Queens, told The Politicker when he announced his City Council campaign yesterday evening, explaining his plans if he's successful. "Everything has to be evidence-based."

Mr. Flowers's interest in the seat, currently held by term-limited Councilman James Sanders, had already been established when he registered a campaign committee, but now his campaign is swinging into full gear with a campaign website and a relatively unique campaign platform.

"There are so many quality of life issues right now that folks aren't happy with," he explained. "What I bring to the table is transparency: a qualitative, quantitative analysis of what's going on. I will let everyone know the issue, I will let everyone know how I'm working on it, and then we set benchmarks."

"If we're not there in six months, we recalibrate and look at what we need to do different," he added.

Only one other candidate, Mr. Sanders' chief of staff, Donovan Richards, has registered a campaign committee for the 2013 race. City & State reported other likely contenders could include attorney Jacques Leandre and Mr. Sanders' former chief of staff, Michael Duncan, both of whom unsuccessfully ran against Mr. Sanders in 2009.

And it's feasible that all of them would need to get their campaigns off the ground sooner rather than later as Mr. Sanders is seriously considering a run for the State Senate this year, which, if successful, would result in a special election to fill the vacancy he'd leave behind him.

For his part, Mr. Flowers said he was excited to get the campaign rolling and start discussing specific policy proposals.

"The way I see it is we all know the issues, everybody knows the issues, but there are not a lot of solutions," he said. "I'm not going to talk about any issue unless I have a solution for it. And I've taken the last several months to talk to folks much smarter than I -- and use the talent I've been given -- to put down solutions for some of our major issues, and I'm ready to implement those. I'm excited!"