The mayor’s power play and ‘politics as usual’

Idistinctly remember the weekend before last June’s mayoral election runoff in Augusta. I walked out to my car after Sunday service at a local church and saw a flier underneath the windshield wipers. It was a political ad from soon-to-be-mayor Garnett Johnson.

The ad criticized the “politics-as-usual” approach from his opponent, Steven Kendrick. The idea was to portray Kendrick as a shifty politician, and presented Johnson as the change Augusta needed. The mayor-to-be didn’t exempt Hardie Davis’ SUV controversy either when he said he didn’t need a city vehicle.

It was political gamesmanship, part of the strategy that yielded a victory for Johnson. It was also the precursor to politics as usual.

Only weeks after he was sworn in as the mayor of Augusta, Johnson made a personal push for political power. Specifically, he wants to be able to vote on every decision the Augusta Commission makes, not just in the case of a tiebreaker. That decision would require a change to the city charter, which means he would need seven commissioners to cosign the power shift.

Or does he?

The proposal has already made its way to the Georgia Senate,