Jeff Johnson (Minnesota politician)

Jeff Johnson
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from the 43A district
In office January 7, 2003 – January 2, 2007
Succeeded by	Sarah Anderson
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from the 34B district
In office January 3, 2001 – January 6, 2003
Preceded by	Todd Van Dellen
Succeeded by	Kurt Zellers
Personal details
Born	(1966-11-11) November 11, 1966 Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Sondi Johnson
Children	Thor Rolf
Alma mater	Concordia College, Moorhead Georgetown University
Religion	Lutheranism
Website	Official website

Jeff Johnson (born 1966) is a politician from Minnesota and the 2014 Republican nominee for governor. He was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2000 and served from 2001 until 2007. He left office to run unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2006. Now the Hennepin County commissioner for the 7th district,^[1][2][3] he was elected as the national Committeeman from Minnesota in April 2011.^[4]

Early life, education, and career

The area around Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Born in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, Johnson graduated from Detroit Lakes High School in Minnesota in 1985. He received a triple Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science/history in 1989 from Concordia College and attended Georgetown University Law School, earning a J.D. in 1992.

Johnson then practiced at the law firms of Lord, Bissell and Brook in Chicago and Parsinen, Kaplan & Levy in Minneapolis. He joined Cargill, Inc. in 1998, practicing employment and labor law until starting his own company, Midwest Employment Resources, providing employment law and human resources services to companies throughout the country.

In 2000, Johnson successfully ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in district 34B, winning 62.8 percent of the vote for the seat vacated by Henry Todd Van Dellen, who had retired. In 2006 he ran for state attorney general, but lost to the DFL candidate, Lori Swanson, with 40.72% of the vote.

Republican National Committee

In 2011, Johnson won an upset victory over Tom Emmer for the position of Minnesota’s Republican National Committeeman. He was reelected without opposition as Committeeman to a full four-year term in 2012.^[5]

Minnesota House of Representatives

First elected in 2000, Johnson served as Assistant Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007 and was Chair of Civil Law and Elections Committee in the 84th Legislative Session.

2014 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign

On May 5, 2013, Johnson announced that he was running for governor. He earned the Republican Party endorsement at their May 2014 convention, and defeated three other serious candidates in the August 12 primary to become the party's nominee to challenge incumbent Democratic Governor Mark Dayton. He was defeated in the November general election.

Controversy

In March 2010, the Hennepin County Board tabled a request by Sheriff Rich Stanek to spend $426,150 to acquire the cellphone spying program KingFish. Johnson voted against tabling the motion, with the Star Tribune reporting that ”Commissioner Jeff Johnson said he was convinced it was an important and useful law enforcement tool that wouldn’t violate privacy rights.”^[6] Johnson was absent the day funding was finally approved. Johnson later wrote in a blog post that he was able to ask Stanek’s office questions about KingFish and was “…quite comfortable with the answers” he received.^[7]

In December 2013, Johnson publicly repudiated his KingFish vote. While admitting that he had supported it, he said it was one of the "votes I might choose to change".^[8][9]

References

External links

• Campaign website for Governor in 2014
• GOP website