in 1997 introduced legislation to let zoning officers issue tickets similar to traffic tickets from the police. "We need to protect neighborhoods against landlords and people who don't keep up their property," he told The Columbus Dispatch. The City of Columbus had requested help because it claimed the existing process of going to criminal court was too slow. In the 1996 presidential primaries, Johnson supported former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander. In the Senate Johnson became chairman of the Judiciary Committee in July 1995 when the committee's chairman, Senator Barry Levey, a Republican of Middletown, retired. Johnson was the youngest-ever chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In the 122nd General Assembly (the 1997–1998 session), he chose to retain that post after dropping out of the race for majority whip, the fourth ranking post in the Republican leadership. He also was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee before entering the Senate leadership in 1999 and had been a member of the Legislative Ethics Committee. Runs in Columbus Johnson in 1997 sought election to a four-year term as Columbus city attorney, who prosecutes misdemeanors within the city limits, defends the city in civil cases, and acts as the city's chief legal advisor with a budget of about $7 million with 140 employees. Johnson was endorsed by the Franklin County Republican Party and, as no other Republican filed, did not face a primary election. "Of all the jobs that are out there, that's the one I'm most qualified for right now," he told The Columbus Dispatch in January. He faced Janet E. Jackson, a former municipal court judge appointed by the city council that month to complete the term of Ron O'Brien, who had been elected Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney. Johnson ran what The Dispatch characterized as an "aggressive" campaign on television and in debates. Among Johnson's concerns was that Jackson had been settling civil suits against the city too readily and for too much money and that she had been lax in prosecuting parents who failed to make child support payments. "I would be a deadbeat parent's worst nightmare," Johnson bragged. However, Jackson noted that no child support cases had been filed with her office and she could not be blamed for failing to hold parents accountable. The Dispatch described one ad: "a man is shown attacking a woman in a kitchen as an announcer cites domestic violence statistics from Jackson's office" that