Joel Johnson (born in 1961 in

Elmore, Ohio Elmore is a village in Ottawa and Sandusky counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 1,370 at the 2020 census. The Ottawa County portion of Elmore is part of the Toledo Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Sandusky County por ...

) is a managing director of the

Glover Park Group The Glover Park Group was an American communications consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company was founded in 2001 by former White House and Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party campaign officials Carter Eskew, ...

, a strategic communications firm, and former Senior Advisor for Policy and Communications to

President Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attor ...

, from 1999 to 2001. Johnson has also worked on the staff of former senators

Tom Daschle Thomas Andrew Daschle ( ; born December 9, 1947) is an American politician and lobbyist who represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1987 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he led the Senate Democratic Caucus during the ...

and

Howard Metzenbaum Howard Morton Metzenbaum (June 4, 1917March 12, 2008) was an American politician and businessman who served for almost 20 years as a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate from Ohio (1974, 1976–1995). He also served in the Ohio House ...

. In 2001, he co-founded The Harbour Group, a public relations company, before leaving to join John Kerry's presidential campaign. Johnson became a managing director of the Glover Park Group in 2005.

Federal government

Johnson joined the staff of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Senator

in 1982, while a student at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. Starting in the mail room, he was later promoted to legislative assistant and then chief of staff. Johnson remained on Metzenbaum's staff until he retired from the Senate in 1994. In 1994, Johnson assumed the role of executive director of the

Democratic Study Group The Democratic Study Group (DSG) was a caucus consisting of liberal members of the Democratic Party in the United States House of Representatives, which also operated as a legislative service organization (LSO). It was founded in 1959 and was activ ...

, a legislative service organization in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

. The following year, he became an assistant secretary on the staff of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

Senator

. In 1996, Daschle named Johnson the staff director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee, specializing in policy and communications strategy. During Johnson's five-year tenure with Daschle, the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...

'' reported that he was a key strategist behind the Democrats' efforts to positively frame their role in the 1995 government shutdown, and he worked on the Democratic Policy Committee as the staff director of leadership communications. He also oversaw the running of the Democratic Senate leadership's television studio, completed in 1996, in the

Hart Senate Office Building The Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building is the third U.S. Senate office building, and is located on 2nd Street NE between Constitution Avenue NE and C Street NE, northeast of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., in the United States ...

. Johnson joined the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

as a senior legislative advisor in May 1999, handling communications strategies and messaging coordination until Clinton left office in January 2001.

Private sector

Following the end of Clinton's term in office in 2001, Johnson co-founded The Harbour Group, a public relations firm based in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He held the role of managing director at the firm, which offers public affairs services including lobbying. At The Harbour Group, Johnson's clients included airlines as well as food processing and pharmaceutical companies. He took a leave of absence from The Harbour Group in 2004 to join the communications team of John Kerry's presidential campaign. In 2005, Johnson became a managing director of the

. He established the firm's government affairs practice, whose clients have included the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Nextel Communications Nextel Communications, Inc. was an American wireless service operator that merged with and ceased to exist as a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, which would later be bought by T-Mobile US and folded into that company. Nextel in Brazil, and form ...

, and Sodexho Alliance.

References

External links

Glover Park website biography

Lobbyist profile and photo

Employment history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Joel 1961 births American political consultants American public relations people Clinton administration personnel Living people Ohio Democrats Senior advisors to the president of the United States University System of Maryland alumni People from Elmore, Ohio