Mayor Eric Johnson’s a Republican? You don’t say

The only thing more predictable than Mayor Eric Johnson’s announcement that he is switching to the Republican Party has been the over-the-top reaction.

Since he first took office for mayor, and even in his first campaign for the office, Johnson was signaling in every way possible that his politics were shifting right.

Two years into office, he supported a slate of candidates running on strong public safety platforms and attacking what he called efforts to defund the police.

His main financial supporters are well-known Republicans, something that has been widely reported.

And in budget debates year after year, he has talked about fiscal conservatism and low taxes.

Now, there are calls for Johnson to step down and even talk of a recall effort because he’s made it official. That doesn’t make sense. And it makes even less sense when you consider that there are plenty of council members who openly work on behalf of Democratic causes and candidates.

To us, the important question isn’t whether Johnson joining the GOP is a good or bad thing, it’s whether partisan politics of any kind belongs around the council horseshoe. It doesn’t, and to the degree Johnson’s announcement makes him more partisan, that’s a bad thing. But let’s not pretend he’s alone in bringing a partisan flavor to city politics.

Dallas’ government was designed to be nonpartisan, in large part by G. B. Dealey, the founder of The Dallas Morning News. In the early 20th century, Dealey and other wise leaders of this city looked at the rot of ward-style politics that was undermining good governance in cities in the Midwest and Northeast. They were determined to see Dallas avoid that path, so they structured a form of government that would create a professional bureaucracy that answered to council members who were not elected on party tickets.

The charter was designed to discourage people from using the council as a stepping stone to higher office. It’s worked beautifully in that regard. Almost no one elevates from mayor to Washington.

Dallas has benefited for years from keeping its elections separate from the party scrum, from the primaries that bolster extremism and from the big money they haul in.

Johnson wrote in The Wall Street Journal that America’s cities need more Republicans in leadership. Lord knows we don’t in Dallas. And we don’t need the Democrats either.

We need people who are ready to do the day-in and day-out work of setting policy to help our city grow and prosper. We need people who want to see the potholes filled, the Police Department staffed, the homeless in safe places to live, and the libraries and parks open and flourishing.

We need people who are about Dallas first.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com