BRACK:  White, Griffin launch Nerf campaigns for mayor

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  The silly season is here already in Charleston city politics.

In the last week, two city council members, 45-year-old Gary White and 23-year-old Harry Griffin, huffed and puffed that they are running for mayor against first-term incumbent John Tecklenburg.

Their reasons for running appear to be that they don’t much like Tecklenburg, who has been thwarted by the likes of White and Griffin and other council members who don’t seem to want to move quickly on curbing rampant development that’s destroying the character of the city or dealing proactively with flooding.

First rule of politics:  When you run for something, have a reason.

White, who has been in office for a dozen years, mentions a park on Daniel Island as his proudest elected accomplishment.  According to a story last week, “White did not detail any particular plank on which he disagrees with Tecklenburg, but he said, ‘I can tell you the one key difference. I’m about action. We’ve studied enough. It’s time to take action.’” Action must mean something that takes 12 years.

As for Griffin, elected less than two years ago to council, we can’t figure out why he wants to be mayor other than he’s always “had my sights set on making a difference.”  At this point, we don’t see any difference Griffin has actually made, other than being good about talking about what he’s always wanted to do.

Both he and White would do better to spend more time with Tecklenburg, who has been working on improving the quality of life throughout the city and protecting it from flooding, instead of hanging out with council members like Bill Moody and Keith Waring, who simply are against just about anything Tecklenburg offers.

Unfortunately, all of them will keep heaving arrows at Tecklenburg until November.  Fortunately,  they’re Nerf arrows.

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