Mike Johanns

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Mike Johanns bigraphy, stories - 28th United States Secretary of Agriculture

Mike Johanns : biography

June 18, 1950 –

Michael Owen "Mike" Johanns (born June 18, 1950) is an American politician and member of the Republican Party who serves as the senior United States Senator from Nebraska.

Born in Osage, Iowa, Johanns is the graduate of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Creighton University School of Law. He began his career as an attorney working in private practice before he clerked for the Nebraska Supreme Court. Elected to the Lancaster County Board as a Democrat in 1983, Johanns served there until 1987, and was elected to the Lincoln City Council in 1988. In 1991, he was elected the 47th Mayor of Lincoln, and was reelected in 1995.

In Nebraska’s 1998 gubernatorial election, Johanns defeated Democratic political aide Bill Hoppner and was reelected in 2002 defeating insurance executive Stormy Dean. He served as the Governor of Nebraska from 1999 until 2005, and served as the chair of the Midwestern Governors Association in 2002.

In 2005, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture, where he served from 2005 from 2007; becoming the fourth Nebraskan to hold the position.

In 2008, Johanns ran for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. He won the Republican primary, defeating businessman Pat Flynn; and later won the general election, defeating Democratic challenger Scott Kleeb. He was sworn in on January 3, 2009; and along with Jim Risch of Idaho, he became only one of two new Republican senators sworn into the 111th United States Congress. On February 18, 2013, Johanns announced that he will not run for reelection to a second term in 2014.

Personal life

Johanns married his first wife Connie Johanns in 1972, they had two kids together; one son Justin and one daughter, Michaela.http://www.nndb.com/people/393/000044261/ He also has five grandchildren. Johanns and his wife divorced in 1985, and he later married Stephanie Armitage in 1986; a former Lancaster county Commissioner and Nebraska state senator.

Governor of Nebraska

Elections

1998

Johanns began an early start campaigning in Nebraska’s 19998 gubernatorial election, holding his first campaign event in October 1995. The early start led to a slow, steady build-up in name recognition and organizational support, and an advantage of small donors over his Republican opponents; Nebraska State Auditor John Breslow, and U.S. Representative Jon Lynn Christensen. Johanns visited all of Nebraska’s 93 counties, traveling over 100,000 miles. Christensen, a two-term representative who promised not to run more than three terms in the House, was seen as a surprise candidate in the gubernatorial election, as he had to give up his seat on the powerful House ways and Means Committee. Christensen (who saw backing from the christian right), and Breslow ran their campaigns on a staunch social conservative message and were seen as trying to "out conservative" and outdistance one another, while Johanns was seen as an attractive candidate for moderate voters.

Christensen was seen as the early front runner, though his lead dramatically fell in the final weeks after making public comments that he signed an affidavit after he and his wife divorced saying that her adultery broke up their marriage. He also saw backlash from comments he made about his second wife (Tara Dawn Holland, the 1996 and 1997 Miss America), that he got her to swear that she was a virgin that was "saving herself for marriage." His campaign also vigorously attacked Johanns in a flier for allowing "obscene and racist" broadcasts to air on Lincoln’s public access cable channel. The broadcasts showed a man urinating in public, though Johanns tried to stop the program, the airing was protected by a federal lawsuit. The flier was condemned by republican members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation, with then Senator Chuck Hagel saying that "Nobody in the Republican Party of Nebraska can be proud of Jon Christensen’s conduct. I hope the people of the state will get out and vote and register their feelings on the conduct of this campaign." Hagel also added that his tactics "embarrassed Nebraska."