Johnston’s County Commissioner Campaign Implodes

The confusion and chaos in the J.D. Johnston Oklahoma County Commissioner District 2 campaign exploded to the surface Thursday, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Brian Maughan came close to winning the three-way Republican race with 47% of the vote. Johnston finished second and made the runoff, but had only 32%, and most political observers say the lead is next to impossible to overcome, especially since Johnston has virtually no political organization on the ground and Maughan sports a formidable grassroots operation.

On Thursday, as the reports of Johnston firing his second group of campaign advisors circulated, rumors began to surface that Johnston has hired yet another set of operatives. These sources say that if true, Johnston is bringing on board some campaign ‘experts’ who seldom win yet are versed in the art of the dirty trick, including one who was deeply involved in management of Randy Terrill’s primary opponent.

Also on Thursday, Johnston circulated an e-mail that appeared to, among other strange items, exploit his wife’s cancer in an effort to attract support, ala Elizabeth Edwards. It was simply sad and pathetic, and combined with the day’s other news, appears to indicate the Johnston campaign has gone completely off the tracks, and trains running off the tracks can do a lot of damage. He’s publicly pledged to run an upbeat, positive campaign emphasizing his business and government experience, but if Johnston has chosen to go silly/stupid negative, and it appears he’s loaded up on consultants whose only talents are for sleaze, his reputation will be ruined. As we’ve pointed out before, bad consultants get you bad results.