By John Fredericks / Staff

Definition of a Closer: - "One that runs best in the latter part of a race; usually sits behind the pack until the final stages of the contest; then mounts a late furious, frenzied move down the stretch in an attempt to overtake the front runners just before the finish line."

That precisely defines the Eric Johnson for governor campaign.

Johnson's vying with three other top-tier Republicans in the July 20 primary for one of two spots in an expected Aug. 10 runoff. The other poll leaders are State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, former Secretary of State Karen Handel, and former Congressman Nathan Deal.

Soft-spoken and generally reserved, the conservative former Republican majority leader of the state senate isn't one to jump up and down and make a lot of noise for affect. He'll talk openly and freely to the media, but he rarely seeks them out.

"He's a quiet, steady and determined leader who gets things done the right way with class and poise," says Mark Burkhalter, former Georgia House Speaker, about his long-time Gold Dome colleague. "Eric's a visionary conservative thinker and a can-do legislator who combines the courage of his convictions and a bias for action with a proven track record of results."

Burkhalter says he remembers when his fellow Republicans took over the state senate in 2003. "They virtually ignored then Democratic Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor. For all intents and purposes, Johnson became the senate's leader."

House Speaker Pro-Tem Jan Jones, from North Fulton, asserted that Johnson has a formidable track record in getting things done. "He led the Republican state senate takeover from Democrat control," Jones said. "At the time, Republicans were still a minority in the House, and we relied on Eric to make sure we were moving our conservative agenda ahead. He was always there for us, and he carried our conservative legislation through the senate time and again."

Jones added that Johnson has proven himself a gifted leader. "He's bright, he's principled, he takes on the big issues and he's relentless in moving things forward," the most powerful woman in the state commented. "No doubt he'd make a very effective governor."

Jones, like Burkhalter, has not made a formal endorsement in the race. Jones has also been complimentary of another candidate in the contest -- former Congressman Nathan Deal.

THE JOHNSON FILE

Eric Johnson and his wife Kathryn have two children: Righton, an attorney in Atlanta, and Marcus, a pastor in Savannah.

When asked about his potential vote base in the Atlanta metro area when his bid for governor started last April, Johnson said it commemced with his daughter. "I know I've got at least one vote in Buckhead," he mused. "We'll build from there."

Called "E.J." by his friends and colleagues, the former Savannah legislator classifies himself as a "principled movement conservative" in the "Ronald Reagan mold." He's an architect by trade and he claims he's the only businessman in the race. "My opponents are all career politicians," he says. "I've built a company and made payroll. They got paid by taxpayers," he says.

Known for his quick wit and sense of humor, he'll often deploy both to defuse an otherwise tense situation, and to get his point across. When actress Jane Fonda opposed his legislation to govern sex education, Johnson fired off this quip: "Jane Fonda lecturing the senate about sex education is like Bill Clinton talking to us about marital fidelity. They may be familiar with the subject matter, but I don’t want my children to learn it from them."

Once he tried to string crime-scene tape around the senate to bring attention to what he considered was unfair Democrat leadership tactics.

Another time he personally took down New York’s flag from the Capitol in retaliation for New York taking Georgia’s flag down to protest its Confederate design.

But Johnson is also a reflective and deliberate thinker. He gives longer press interviews and goes into much more policy detail than most of his colleagues or gubernatorial rivals. "You can't govern by sound bite," he said in an interview last year, "so you shouldn't campaign by it, either." He says that the voter selection process is a very long in-depth voter interview for the state's top job. "What you see with Eric Johnson, is what you get, bald head and all," he quipped several months ago.

The coastal Georgian cut his teeth as a Young Republican in the early 1980's. Congressman Jack Kingston of Savannah was in YR's with Johnson in the early days and says his friend was politically savvy even then.

“He liked the nuts and bolts,” Kingston said. “He ran my campaign for state House. No one gave us a chance. But we won and never could have without Eric.” When Kingston went to Washington in 1992, Johnson won his old House seat. He never looked back, winning a senate seat in 1994. "Eric is a policy wonk,” Kingston said. “He really knows budgets. He can tell you what’s in paragraph B, page 3,612."

ELEVATING THE DEBATE

Johnson maintains he has tried diligently to elevate the governor debate into real policy discussions. But he's says he's now dismayed by the negative tone some campaigns have taken in the final weeks.

Johnson and his staff, led by veteran manager Ben Fry, have made staying positive a cornerstone of their campaign communication strategy in the final days of the primary battle. Earlier this week, Johnson went so far as to call on his opponents to pull down their negative ads and stop their negative mail pieces.

"Attacks on our fellow Republicans aren’t going to create one job, they aren’t going to stop one teacher furlough day, they’re not going to lower taxes for one Georgia family,” said Johnson. “It’s time for us to focus on the issues that matter and that is why I am calling on my opponents to put an immediate end to the attacks."

But Johnson was a target of some negative campaigning himself last week. Right before launching her first attack ad on TV, Handel jumped on the ethics bandwagon and admonished Johnson for his support for a law that gave Gulfstream Aerospace a tax break, just before Gulfstream then leased two buildings from the company he worked for.

But Fry said the legislation created about 1,500 jobs in Georgia. "Eric played no role in the lease, and it was unrelated to the tax issue and based on open competitive bidding," Fry relayed. 

When contacted, Johnson brushed it off as more of the same. "I've laid out a detailed and bold plan to put Georgia back to work, to crack down on illegal immigration, and to personalize education," Johnson shot back. "Our campaign has not done or released a single negative ad, mail piece, or automated call," he said.

"Pollsters, consultants, and pundits might disagree with my decision and I might pay a political price, but that’s fine," continued Johnson. "Georgia is too important. The struggles of the families I meet on the campaign trail are too important. Hopefully my opponents will join me in focusing on the issues instead of on each other."

EJ TAKES NO PRISONERS

From the outset, Johnson played hardball with his liberal legislative senate colleagues.

When the GOP finally got within striking distance of a senate majority in 2002, Johnson was a lynchpin in convincing several swing vote conservative Democrats to change political parties.

"He’d tell them, 'If you go with us, these are the committees you might chair,'" said Rep. Ron Stephens, (R-Savannah).  "'And if you don’t, we’ll beat you next time.'"

When he got enough Democrats to become Republicans, Johnson became president pro tem of the senate.

An acknowledged parliamentary partisan, Johnson has taken his share of political heat, too.

As the senate ethics chair in 2009, he was roundly criticized for using rules and technicalities to sweep complaints against powerful Republicans under the carpet.

At least one such complaint -- aimed at former House Speaker Glenn Richardson -- who resigned in disgrace in November-- proved to be valid.

Johnson claimed at the time that that the charges on Richardson were politically motivated and that he merely followed the law.

In June, The Associated Press reported he failed to make required disclosures of $280,000 in state contract income to an engineering firm in which he was a partner.

The candidate, who regularly made disclosures of similar income to the firm, called his omission "inadvertent." He says it was a simple accounting faux pas, and maintained that the unreported income was from competitive-bid contracts his firm was awarded by the state of Georgia between 1999 and 2002, when Roy Barnes (D) was governor. "I missed it, I was told about, I fixed it," Johnson said.

PEAKING AT THE RIGHT TIME?

After lagging in single digits and languishing in fourth place for most of the campaign, Johnson, like a late closer in a horse race, is now making his move, as the final days to the primary count down. He's stressing jobs and economics.

His message may finally be starting to resonate with undecided voters looking for an alternative.

A new InsiderAdvantage / WSB-TV poll, published late this week, showed Johnson's campaign surging, up into double digits and within striking distance of the leaders -- with 22 percent still undecided going into the all important last few days, when primary voters start focusing on the July 20 race.

Johnson is expected to poll very well down state, and in the coastal region, where he has generated much excitement for his campaign. Early voting in coastal counties has been exceptionally brisk, a good sign for the Johnson camp. 

The Savannah native say's he's also counting on a big vote in Cobb and Gwinnett counties to get him in the run-off. "I'm going to carry Gwinnett County," Johnson boldly predicted. "And we'll do very well in Cobb."

One local observer, Fulton County School Board member Ashley Widener, from Johns Creek, says Johnson is a like a stealth candidate. "He's not flashy, he's a man of substance, a principled conservative who knows what it takes to govern," said Widener. 

"He's pulled off many a miracle before, and you'll see that Tuesday night, when he makes the run-off. They'll never see him coming, until the votes come in."