Local trial attorney Chris Breault says he wasn’t going for the element of surprise when he qualified to run for mayor at the last minute. Though his announcement came as a surprise to many Breault said he didn’t need any extra time to put the voters on notice because he’s bankrolling his own campaign. “The way I look at it is it’s not last minute. The race didn’t officially start until the week of qualifying,” Breault said.
“A lot of these candidates they need other people’s money to fund their campaigns, so they spend a year, they spend six months basically begging people for money and that’s what a lot of their events are so I’m financing the campaign myself. We’re not taking any contributions whatsoever, so we don’t need as much time to get our message out as they do cause if you look at the events they go to so many of them are fundraisers and cocktail hours and really they’re just trying to court you know donations so we’re not doing any of that and it kind of gives us a lot more time to do things like this.”
Breault spoke to Now Georgia from an East Columbus block party he was hosting on Buena Vista Road not far from where he spent a part of his childhood. He has spent a great deal of time talking about issues legislated at the state level including school speed zone cameras and the Georgia Department of Transportation project that is taking years to complete on Buena Vista Road. “The school cameras they are allowed by state law, but they’re not state cameras there. The city and the sheriff’s department locally they put those cameras up, they get the money not the state so that’s not really a state issue.”
“But the Georgia DOT project I mean you know the old saying the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If this were my city, my project what I’m going to do is I would know who the project manager is. I would know who their assistants are. I would know who is managing at the state level and I would be advocating to them to get the project hurried up.”
“You saw in the debate with Mr. Hugley he made a statement how they thought Moon Road was so important to get built and done that they provided the money first; the city did and then they let the state and the federal government reimburse them. So, my question is with the building project here on Buena Vista Road why is Moon Road more important than Buena Vista and why didn’t they just front the money for this building project and get it done instead of just letting it take seven years? I think it’s called soft power. There are ways of getting things done without using force so to speak.”
Following up on the controversial issue of what to do with the homeless population in Columbus, Breault said he doesn’t think homelessness should be illegal but is in favor of strict regulations. “I don’t think you have a right to just take a public street corner and make it yours because you’re homeless. I think there’s a lot of places you could sleep that aren’t necessarily like the two or three blocks of downtown,” Breault said.
“I don’t think that homelessness should be illegal, but I can see the need to have more regulation of places where families are at, where people are going and businesses. I just think if it’s the economic center and tourist center of the city then I don’t know that you want to let people just sleep there all day every day.”
One of Breault’s opponents in the race for mayor wasted no time capitalizing on past controversies involving the trial attorney by posting his mugshot on social media. Breault was arrested for contempt of court, and he also had his license temporarily suspended for six months because of his conduct litigating a 2017 personal injury case according to the Georgia Supreme Court. “You know the old saying is that lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep and so they can say what they want. I am who I am.”
“I grew up on this street right here (pointing off Buena Vista Road). I used to walk to school here. I know this community so they can say what they want but by the end of the race the community they will have all the information about me and know me enough to make their decision,” Breault said.
Breault will square off against five other candidates in the race for mayor. Election day is May 19 with early voting beginning at the end of this month.
