Igive the guy credit. I write that not just because it was 85 degrees Monday afternoon, and there was Mickey Kearns, walking down Swan Street under a pounding sun wearing a suit, shirt and tie. It made me sweat just looking at him.

More than that, I give Kearns props for taking on a battle against odds so long that most folks, in his position, would not bother. Instead, Kearns is running in the Sept. 15 Democratic primary for mayor, against a blandly appealing incumbent with a formidable political machine and a huge ethnic base of support.

Beyond that, Byron Brown has the massive advantages that come with being mayor. They include a $1 million-plus campaign stash—and all of the mailings and TV ads it can buy—funded largely by lawyers, engineers and contractors who know that a donation is the entry fee for getting business from the city. Brown also benefits from an army of City Hall workers who know that “volunteering” for their boss’ campaign is the price of employment.

It amounts to the cliched David vs. Goliath battle, and Kearns—with less than one-tenth the money of the mayor—has barely a pebble in his slingshot. All of which distracts from what I think is the larger point: Buffalo desperately needs creative leadership, and Brown—to my mind—is a between-the-lines bureaucrat who is long on political savvy but short on plans or proposals. That failing was underlined by a recent anti-poverty plan, for America’s third-poorest city, that was inexcusably absent of ideas.

The last thing I think this mayor deserves is a free pass to a second term. Kearns’ opposition, however marginal, at least gives voters in a heavily Democratic city a choice. And it is, to my mind, not a bad choice.

Kearns is 40, a prematurely gray Council member from South Buffalo who has some of mentor Jimmy Griffin’s no-frills appeal, without the venom. Kearns showed rare initiative by educating himself on the issue of Route 5, an anti-development wall on the waterfront. He took Council members on trips to cities that removed elevated roads on their waterfronts. Unlike Brown and many elected officials, Kearns seems to me more interested in ideas than in politics, power and patronage jobs.

Which is why Kearns was sweltering Monday a few blocks from downtown, rapping on doors in a tidy, largely Hispanic neighborhood. He told Elba Rodriguez that, when mayor, he would set up rehab loans to help her get the roof fixed. He promised Deborah Rivera there would be more playgrounds for her kids, ages 6 and 2.

“I say to people, ‘You have a choice. There is a race,’” Kearns said. “Money will not decide who the next mayor is. People are learning more about what I stand for.”

The folks he spoke with told me later that they liked him. Yet only a few of the dozen people I talked to had ever heard of Kearns before he appeared on the doorstep. That, for Kearns, is a problem.

Kearns said he had 107 volunteers out Saturday in various neighborhoods. Longtime political operative Chito Olivencia has signed on. An $11,000 outlay just bought 2,000 lawn signs. He has a Web site (kearnsformayor.com). But a single TV ad or citywide mailing— which Kearns can barely manage,—gets your face into 100,000 Buffalo homes.

And Brown can roll one out at will. I reminded Kearns of that reality.

“Money will not decide who the next mayor is,” he said. “This election is going to be historic.”

Maybe Kearns truly believes he can win. Maybe he is just trying to buck up the troops. Either way, folks in America’s third-poorest city deserve a choice. Despite the odds, I am glad that Kearns is spending his summer on the streets, instead of at the beach.