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DEL.ICIO.USSnellville mayoral candidate: I’m not new or old guard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bruce Garraway was none too pleased by this newspaper’s characterization of him last week as the choice of Snellville’s “old guard.”
He is, but the Snellville city councilman and newly qualified mayoral candidate hates that label.
“My vision is to see only one guard in Snellville, and that is the ‘inclusive guard,’ where a mayor and City Council would include all citizens, newcomers and longtime residents, supporters and opponents,” said Garraway, in an op-ed column he wrote for AJC Gwinnett News last November.
When we brought up the old guard-new guard thing on Friday, the day after Garraway signed up to run for mayor, he fired off an angry e-mail.
“What kind of reporting is this?” Garraway wrote.
In fairness, Garraway and his incumbent opponent, Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer, were allies when the two ran for their current jobs in 2003. And Garraway’s Snellville roots don’t run that deep. He moved inside the Snellville city limits about a year before he was elected to the council.
Garraway and Oberholtzer had a falling out within the first year of taking office. Since then, Garraway has consistently sided with the voting bloc backed by supporters of former mayor Emmett Clower. Clower, who governed the city for 25 years, was ousted in 1999 by political newcomer Brett Harrell. Harrell, who served only one term as mayor, ran on a platform of change.
Garraway says he’s running as an agent of change, too. And he says he wants to be everybody’s choice.
But if Garraway is seeking to run a campaign of municipal unity, we’re not sure “inclusive guard” works. It seems like a mouthful.
How about “right guard”?
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By Brenda
September 3, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this
He’s “right guard” alright. “Right Guard Extreme” and he’ll work up a sweat trying to cover up the foul odor of his connection to Snellville’s “old guard” and former Mayor Emmett Clower.
In an effort to break the stranglehold the “old guard” had on this county and my adopted city of Snellville I’ve supported and worked on campaigns for many candidates over the past 10 years. Most of the candidates have risen to the challenge and become honorable elected officials. Over the term of their civil service, do they make mistakes? Sure. As long as they remember who they represent, I can forgive some mistakes in judgment.
However, there are 3 candidates I’ve supported that turned out to be colossal failures and for that I humbly apologize to my fellow Gwinnettians. The first two were District 1 Commissioner Marsha Neaton and District 3 Commissioner John Dunn back in 2000. The third is Snellville Councilman Bruce Garraway.
By Garraway’s second year in office Clower and his supporters were clearly influencing him behind the scenes. He has voted with a block of other councilmen we refer to as the “Snellville Council Clowns” (SCC), which include, Councilwoman Kelly Kautz, Councilman Warren Auld, Councilman Robert Jenkins and former Councilman Mike Smith who was indicted on felony charges for illegal telemarketing. The SCC is also responsible for making former City Manager Jeff Timler’s job unbearable to the point he eventually resigned. Garraway was the leader on an effort to reduce the pay/benefits of public safety and the list goes on and on and on.
There is plenty of public record to show Bruce Garraway’s connection to Snellville’s “old guard”, which will come out in other posts. Suffice it to say that Bruce Garraway is “Snellville’s Right Guard Extreme”.
By steve ried
September 3, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this
Brenda- What do your mistakes in supporting two county commissioners have to do with Snellville?
City manager Timler didn’t even live in Snellville, but you’re right -he shouldn’t have been pressured to resign. He should have been fired for incompetence.
Do you even live in Snellville?
By Brenda
September 3, 2007 11:44 AM | Link to this
Where I live won’t change Bruce Garraways’s voting record.
By Michael H. Smith
September 3, 2007 1:51 PM | Link to this
Confession is good for soul. Will confession be good for Snellville? Only Snellville can answer that. Since my City is Lawrenceville little immediate affects from the outcome of Snellville’s Mayoral election will impact me. However, as we all know and should sincerely reckon, unlike Los Vegas, what happens in Snellville does not always stay in Snellville – respectively speaking, nor does such containment happen to exist in any other City of Gwinnett County.
Mr. Garraway and I differ politically so my opinion is biased by that Teddy Roosevelt progressive populist diametric. I’ll take a wait and see attitude on further comment until all the potential candidates are known and leave this thought:
Be careful of the change you choose, for we all will eventually have to live with them too.