Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa * Botswana Democratic Party * Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *De ...

Fannie Mae The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesot ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

Shearson Lehman Brothers Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward ShearsonLehman Brothers. After leading Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, Johnson became a board member of the investment bank

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Hong ...

as well as several other companies including

Target Corporation Target Corporation ( doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a comp ...

and

UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world's seventh largest c ...

. He was also chairman of both the Kennedy Center for the Arts and the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ...

.

Early life and education

Johnson was born on December 24, 1943, in

Benson, Minnesota Benson is a city in Swift County, Minnesota, United States, along the Chippewa River. The population was 3,240 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat. History Benson was platted in 1870 when the railroad was extended to that point. As the e ...

. He was the son of Adeline, a schoolteacher, and Alfred I. Johnson, who was a member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

from 1941 to 1958, and served as

speaker of the house The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hunger ...

in 1955 and 1957. At the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

, Johnson was student body president and graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

in 1966, and a

Master of Public Affairs The master of public affairs (M.P.Aff., M.P.A. or MPA) is a master-level professional degree offered in public policy schools that provides training in public policy and the operation of government. Courses required for this degree educate stud ...

degree from the School of Public and International Affairs at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

in 1968.

Career

While a student at the University of Minnesota, Johnson began his political career as a volunteer on the 1968 presidential campaign of

Eugene McCarthy Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...

. He was later a faculty member at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

. In the

1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries From January 24 to June 20, 1972, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1972 United States presidential election. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elec ...

, Johnson started as the national campaign coordinator for Senator Edmund Muskie, whose primary campaign came to an end despite early victories in Iowa and Illinois. From 1973 to 1976, Johnson served as director of public affairs at the Dayton-Hudson Corporation (now

Target Corporation Target Corporation ( doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a comp ...

). During this period, Johnson also worked for Senators

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 p ...

and

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesot ...

. In 1974, Mondale considered a run in the 1976 presidential primaries with an exploratory committee which Johnson helped create. In 1976, he was deputy director of Mondale's vice-presidential campaign and was executive assistant to the Vice President during the entire

Carter Administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican Presiden ...

. In 1981, Johnson co-founded Public Strategies, a private consulting firm, with diplomat

Richard Holbrooke Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke (April 24, 1941 – December 13, 2010) was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 ...

. During that time, he was the campaign manager for

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesot ...

's unsuccessful 1984 presidential bid. After selling Public Strategies to

Shearson Lehman Brothers Shearson was the name of a series of investment banking and retail brokerage firms from 1902 until 1994, named for Edward ShearsonLehman Brothers from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, Johnson became vice chairman of

Fannie Mae The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...

, or the Federal National Mortgage Association, a United States 

government-sponsored enterprise A government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) is a type of financial services corporation created by the United States Congress. Their intended function is to enhance the flow of credit to targeted sectors of the economy, to make those segments of th ...

and 

publicly traded company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...

. In 1991, he was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae, a position he held until 1998. In 1996 Johnson published a book, ''Showing America a New Way Home''. An

Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) was an agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development of the United States of America. It was charged with ensuring the capital adequacy and financial safety and soundness o ...

(OFHEO) report from September 2004 found that, during Johnson's tenure as CEO, Fannie Mae had improperly deferred $200 million in expenses. This enabled top executives, including Johnson and his successor,

Franklin Raines Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949) also known as Frank Raines is an American business executive. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of the Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, who ser ...

, to receive substantial bonuses in 1998. A 2006 OFHEO report found that Fannie Mae had substantially under-reported Johnson's compensation. Originally reported as $6–7 million, Johnson actually received approximately $21 million. In the 2011 book ''Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon'', authors

Gretchen Morgenson Gretchen C. Morgenson (born January 2, 1956) is an American, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist notable as longtime writer of the ''Market Watch'' column for the Sunday "Money & Business" section of ''The New York Times''. In November, 2017, sh ...

and Joshua Rosner wrote that Johnson was one of the key figures responsible for the late-2000s financial crisis. Morgenson described him in an

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

interview as "corporate America's founding father of regulation manipulation".

Andrew Ross Sorkin Andrew Ross Sorkin (born February 19, 1977) is an American journalist and author. He is a financial columnist for ''The New York Times'' and a co-anchor of CNBC's ''Squawk Box.'' He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news s ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 2012, "In fairness to Mr. Johnson, the vast majority of losses racked up by Fannie were the results of loans bought after he departed." Johnson was one of the first outside directors and the longest-serving board member of the investment bank

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Hong ...

. From 1999, when the company went public, until May 2018, he served as chairman of the compensation committee at Goldman Sachs. He also served on the board of

Forestar Group Forestar Group Inc. is a residential lot development company based in Arlington, Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. ...

, Gannett Company, Inc.,

KB Home KB Home is a homebuilding company based in the United States, founded in 1957 as Kaufman & Broad in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first company to be traded on the NYSE as a home builder and was a Fortune 500 company from 2000 through 2008. Its ...

, Target Corporation,

Temple-Inland Temple-Inland, Inc. was an American corrugated packaging and building products company. It was acquired by International Paper in 2012. History Inland Container Corporation was founded by Herman C. Krannert as Anderson Box Company in Anderso ...

, and

UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is an American multinational managed healthcare and insurance company based in Minnetonka, Minnesota. It offers health care products and insurance services. UnitedHealth Group is the world's seventh largest c ...

. Johnson was also the vice chairman of the private banking firm

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus ( /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek: Περσεύς, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer of ...

. Johnson chaired the vice presidential selection committee for the unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry. There was speculation that, had Kerry won, Johnson might have been named Kerry's

chief of staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

, or

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

. On June 4, 2008, Barack Obama announced the formation of a three-person committee to vet vice presidential candidates, including Johnson,

Caroline Kennedy Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author, attorney, and diplomat serving in the Biden administration as the United States Ambassador to Australia since 2022. She previously served in the Obama administration as the ...

, and

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African American ...

. However, Johnson soon became a source of controversy when it was reported that he had received $7 million in cut-rate mortgage loans directly from

Angelo Mozilo Angelo R. Mozilo (born 1938) was the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial until July 1, 2008. Life and career Mozilo was born in New York City, the son of a Bronx butcher. He received a Bachelor of Science deg ...

, the CEO of

Countrywide Financial Countrywide is one of the UK's largest integrated property services group including residential property surveying, a collaboration of estate agents, and corporate services. It employs circa 8,500 personnel nationwide, working across 650+ estate ...

, a company implicated in the U.S.

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the coll ...

. Johnson resigned from the vice presidential search committee on June 11, 2008, stating that he had done nothing wrong but did not want to distract attention from Obama's "historical effort". He continued to assist in efforts to recruit former

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

supporters to the Obama campaign. On September 19, 2008, the

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

campaign released an ad critical of Obama for his connections to Johnson and for appointing him to the vice presidential search committee.

Other memberships

Johnson has served as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Arts (1996–2004) where he created and endowed the center's Millennium Stage. He was also chairman of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ...

(1994–2003) and continued thereafter to serve on the advisory council of the Brookings Institution's

Hamilton Project The Hamilton Project is an economic policy initiative within the Brookings Institution. It was originally launched in April 2006 by a combination of public policy makers, business people, academic leaders, and other former Clinton administration ec ...

. Since 2011, he has been chairman of the advisory council for the Stanford University Center on Longevity. He was a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, the American Friends of Bilderberg, the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York City ...

, and the

Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...

. Johnson was also a member of the steering committee of the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg meeting (also known as the Bilderberg Group) is an annual off-the-record conference established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally to prevent another world war, is now defi ...

and participated in all of their conferences since 1998 except in 1999 and 2004.

Honors and accolades

In 1994, Johnson received the

Honor Award The National Building Museum promotes excellence in architecture, engineering, construction, planning, and design. In furtherance of that mission, the Museum instituted an annual Honor Award in 1986 to recognize individuals and organizations that h ...

from the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit in ...

for his contributions to the U.S.'s building heritage during his tenure at

Fannie Mae The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is a United States government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and, since 1968, a publicly traded company. Founded in 1938 during the Great Depression as part of the New ...

. He was also named as a Washingtonian of the Year by '' Washingtonian'' magazine in 1998. Johnson received an Honorary

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthro ...

in 1997, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in 1999, and Doctor of Laws from

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. History Sk ...

in 2002 and the University of Minnesota in 2006.

Personal life

Johnson's first marriage was to Katherine Marshall. After they divorced, he married Maxine Isaacs, who served as press secretary for Mondale's 1984 election campaign. Together, they had a son (Alfred). They separated in 2010 and subsequently divorced. He married Heather Muir Kirby, a managing director at

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stoc ...

, in 2016. Johnson's son, Alfred Johnson, is currently serving as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Department of the Treasury. He previously served in the

Obama Administration Barack Obama's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 44th president of the United States began with First inauguration of Barack Obama, his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democratic Pa ...

, working as an aide to

Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...

. Johnson died on October 18, 2020, at his home in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

, at age 76; he had suffered from a

neurological condition A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakne ...

in the time leading up to his death.

References

External links

Personal site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, James A. 1943 births 2020 deaths American political consultants Clinton administration personnel Directors of Goldman Sachs Fannie Mae chief executive officers Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group Minnesota Democrats People from Benson, Minnesota Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni Princeton University faculty University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Writers from Minnesota