Mayor Johnson: Bring in the A-Team

The Special Election is going to be something of a needle-threading exercise for former Mayor Bill Johnson.   To have a chance of winning, Johnson must make sure his campaign is run by seasoned political operators with a proven track record of winning contested campaigns in this area.

We think highly of Johnson's campaign manager Mitch Rowe, and of another of the former Mayor's campaign advisors, former school board member Tom Brennan, but for reasons other than their experience running contested campaigns.   Neither has the background or track record suitable to the task at hand.

Mayor Johnson, what you need are seasoned political campaign directors like the people down at Monroe Republican headquarters who run campaigns for county legislature and county executive.   One or two from GOP Chairman Bill Reilich's core group, the ones known in the trade as Hannibal and the A-Team.

These are the people who run detailed campaigns on a day to day basis.   The ones who make Joe Morelle face the cameras each Election Night in recent years to explain "what went wrong" for his side in nearly every local election.   The ones who held the county legislature for the GOP in 2009, against every expectation that Democrats would get that one extra seat they needed to take it over.   The ones who will be running Maggie Brooks's campaign this year.

We doubt that Reilich leases these people out.

But there are a bunch of Minarik/Reilich "A-Team" alumni out there, who have moved on from the Republican organization.   They do campaigns as political soldiers of fortune.   If you have a campaign . . . if no one else can help . . . maybe . . . if you can find them . . . you can hire . . . the A-Team alumni.

Word is they'd do this one, for you, pro bono, as the lawyers say.