You’ve got to hand it to Roswell Mayor Jere Wood. Call him what you want. But now we have to add this description to his list of surnames: master politician. Give credit where credit is due. He cleaned his political nemesis Lori Henry’s clock in the recent budget debate. It was no contest.

Wood won. Henry lost. Big time.

It speaks to his political skill and leads us to believe he is not to be counted out of the upcoming mayoral election, regardless of his negatives. Henry, his primary mayoral challenger at this stage of the contest, proved no match for him politically.

Further, he has forged a new Roswell governing coalition majority out of the ashes. This includes Councilmen Jerry Orlans, David Tolleson and Councilwoman Becky Wynn. Add Wood and that makes four. The new “gang of four,” that is.

Incredibly, Wood accomplished this feat in the face of seeing his slate of council candidates get slaughtered in the 2007 election cycle by the Henry political machine. Where have you witnessed a mayor who was in the minority see his chosen candidates crushed in an election and then emerge less than two years later with a new majority coalition? Not often. But Wood has done it.

He deftly crafted his new majority by winning over newcomer Wynn, who got elected in 2007 with the support of the Henry faction. She steadfastly opposed Wood’s twin towers project and clobbered his favored candidate, Bruce Peoples. But Wood saw an opening and gave Wynn a seat at the table immediately. He knows she has further political ambition, and she never really fit in with the Henry-Igleheart-Dippolito alliance. So he wooed her vote – successfully.

Next, he forged an alliance with his other mayoral opponent, Tolleson, in a brilliant political move to isolate Henry. Tolleson knows his only chance to win the mayoral election is to poll ahead of Henry and take Wood out in a run-off, with the help of disaffected Henry voters, who will never vote for Wood. The mayor knows he has a better chance of beating Tolleson in a run-off then Henry. Apart from money, where he will have a massive advantage, he doesn’t want to have to take on Henry’s notorious ground forces in a run-off election. She has a virtual army of volunteers that she can mobilize in a moments notice. Tolleson lacks that, so if money wins, Wood wins.

Councilman Kent Igleheart proved this theory in his 2005 run-off with challenger Bob Hagan. Igleheart was outspent seven to one, but when the run-off came, he had the troops and Hagan didn’t. He annihilated Hagan. Volunteer ground forces in municipal run-off elections trump cash. Turnout is king, and the candidate with the motivated volunteer base wins. The math doesn’t lie.

So Tolleson needs Wood to trash Henry and Wood needs Tolleson to make the run-off in lieu of Henry. If Henry comes in first or second in the November election they are both toast, and they know it. So the alliance, unholy as it may be, is formed. And thus Wood has his “gang of four” majority.

Politics makes strange bedfellows, indeed.