Martin Harrison
| Martin Harrison | |
| File:Martin Harrison.png Official Portrait of Martin Harrison | |
| 1st Mayor of New Bay City | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 October 1963 |
| Political party | Democratic Liberty Party |
| Religion | Christian |
Martin Harrison (born October 10, 1963) is an American politician, political activist, prominent liberal Christian speaker, and the current Mayor of New Bay City. Prior to his inauguration as mayor in 2010, Harrison worked as Chief of Staff to Senator Gray Vinnick of Texas from 2007. Harrison is also a prominent figure in liberal Christianity, and founded the radio talk-show Love thy Neighbor.
Harrison was born in Austin, Texas on 10 October 1963, studied law at the University of Texas and graduated cum laude. He is a practicing Christian, however has numerous times as part of his liberal Christian campaign stated that people are not required to go to church or sing Kumbaya to qualify as an actual Christian. His father was a prominent litigator and his mother worked for his father at their firm.
Former Senator Gray Vinnick and Harrison's uncle know each other personally and together frequently play golf. This is how Harrison came to be his congressional chief of staff when he won the first congressional election in the Allied States in 2007 to the House of Representatives. In 2009, Vinnick gave Harrison leave to compete in the New Bay City mayoral election, with him being the Democratic Liberal candidate versus Conservative Victory candidate Joshua Morrison.
Harrison narrowly defeated Morrison and was inaugurated in January 2010.
Professional life
Love thy Neighbor
In 2001, Harrison became highly involved with liberal Christianity. Being raised a fundamentalist Christian, it came as a surprise to Harrison's family when he started joining liberal Christian clubs and churches, and started being a voice of sorts for the allegedly under-represented liberal Christian community. In 2005, he founded the radio talk-show Love thy Neighbor, a reference to the Second Commandment in Christianity: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
The highly controversial show, which is still frequented today by Harrison while being mayor, regularly talks about subjects such as LGBT issues, the death penalty, abortion and other notable issues in Christianity. The show also comments on current events which regard to religion and religion in politics.
Campaign and election
Harrison entered the race for Mayor of New Bay City in March 2009. The campaign slogan was "One New City. One New Direction." Early polls in April showed Harrison leading opponent Joshua Morrison by 20 percent. Later polls up until the election kept Harrison in the 15-30 percent lead, however, he narrowly won the position by only 11 percent.
He was inaugurated early the next year, in January 2010, as the first ever Mayor of New Bay City. The city began construction in early 2008 and when the basic structure of the city was completed in early 2009, the Texas State Department scheduled its first mayoral election. The city council was created along with the government and the first CC elections took place in February 2010, and the councilors were inaugurated in July of the same year.
The city became the country's capital in late-2010.
Activities as mayor
New Bay City is politically divided into two sections: the Federal Administrative Center and the rest of the city. Harrison, being Mayor of New Bay City and not the Superintendent of the FAC, has no power over the FAC and may only vote on City Council legislation affecting the district. The city has a strong mayor-council government, thus Harrison has almost absolute power. He is able to appoint and dismiss department heads, prepare and administer the city budget, and enforce city and state laws.
Since becoming mayor, Harrison effectively enforced the new federal education policy allowing for individual schools' parent and teacher associations to decide whether or not to teach evolution or creationism as fact. Harrison however had an advantage: all schools were new and had no traditions or policy histories. He balanced the appointment of liberal and conservative principals.
Harrison supports immigration reform, same-sex civil unions on federal level and strict crime fighting. During his term, he has passed several local ordinances extending the sentences of crimes committed within New Bay City's city limits after the state legislature gave municipalities the right to change some criminal justice policies within their metropolitan areas. Harrison appointed Jeffrey Mallard as chief of police only weeks after being inaugurated, and helped form the New Bay City Police Department.