It’s Bum Steer Awards time. That’s the Texas Monthly deal where they make fun of people and events over the past year that deserve to be made fun of. Our own Mayor Eric Johnson has been singled out. Here’s the item:
Bill de Blasio: I am the most despised mayor in America.
Eric Johnson: Hold my beer.
Though he has served for only a year as Dallas’s mayor, Eric Johnson has already managed to alienate almost everyone. Case in point: in 2020 he launched a crusade to “defund the bureaucracy,” putting forth a proposal to cut all city salaries above $60,000. He didn’t do any of the political work to build consensus among city council members, and his plan went down in a 13–1 vote. Weeks later, he narrowly fended off an attempt by the council to strip him of the authority to speak for the city at the Legislature—a remarkable action, given that Johnson served in the Lege for 10 years.
I reached out this morning to Tristan Hallman, the mayor’s chief of policy and communications, for comment. I asked him, “Given Mayor Johnson’s friendly treatment by Texas Scorecard and his frequent appearances on WBAP’s Chris Salcedo Show, does he think it is fair that Texas Monthly claims he has ‘managed to alienate almost everyone’?”
I’ve yet to hear back from Hallman and will update this post if I do.
UPDATE: At 4:25 pm on December 17, Hallman sent the following: “The mayor is focused on serving the people of Dallas, who have been incredibly supportive of his goals, especially his push to make Dallas a safer and stronger city.”
