Former Democratic Attorney General candidate Chris Johnson was picked to fill the vacant 7th City Council District at their meeting last week. A final vote confirming the choice will be taken by the City Council this evening at the Council meeting.
As an AG candidate, Johnson pursued a very progressive criminal justice reform platform, most of which has been thankfully adopted by the winner of the AG primary, current Attorney General Kathy Jennings. Chris also campaigned on issues of economic and environmental justice, which are issues he will confront in his new role on the city council.
Here is a link to our interview with him from last year’s campaign.
If chosen tonight (and it would be a shocking turn of events if he is not chosen tonight), he would then face election in his own right in 2020. But the fight that Johnson will likely face first is the debate over the Blight Bill that aims to give the city more power to fine owners of dilapidated properties. Chris did not take a position on the bill at a Democratic forum last month.
Chris Johnson is a good guy and extremely capable. I am a Republican but I would be confident if we had more people like him in office at all levels. The current council members are mostly people I wouldn’t trust to run student government, let alone a small city. Hope that experience will not discourage him.
With Chris everyone is winner all the way around , Good News !!!
Why hasnt chris taken a position on blight? Hes always rubbed me as a little to political. Running for State AG less then a decade out of law school screams EGO and he didnt even finish 2nd. He should of started local to begin with.
Have the workers on his former campaigns been fully paid?