Sam Johnson

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Samuel Robert "Sam" Johnson (born October 11, 1930) is an American politician. He currently is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Third District of Texas (map).

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Biography

Johnson grew up in Dallas, Texas and graduated from Southern Methodist University. He served a 29-year career in the United States Air Force, where he served as director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying demonstration team.

He is a veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars as a fighter pilot. In the Korean War, he flew F-86s in 62 combat missions. In the Vietnam War, Johnson flew F-4s.

In 1966, while flying his 25th combat mission in Vietnam, he was shot down over North Vietnam. He was a prisoner of war for seven years, including 42 months in solitary confinement. During this period, he was repeatedly tortured and had no contact with any other American.

Johnson recounted the details of his POW experience in his autobiography, Captive Warriors.

A decorated war hero, Johnson was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, one Bronze Star with Valor, two Purple Hearts, four Air Medals, and three Outstanding Unit Awards.

After his military career, he established a home-building business and served in the Texas State Legislature. He has represented Texas' Third District in the United States Congress since 1991.

Johnson is married to the former Shirley L. Melton, of Dallas. They are parents of three children and ten grandchildren.

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Political positions

In the House, by some views, Johnson had the most conservative record for three consecutive years, opposing pork barrel projects of all kinds, voting for more IRAs and against extending unemployment benefits. However, Citizens Against Government Waste rated him in 2004 as having a much less conservative voting record on fiscal matters, ranking eight other Texas Republicans as 'taxpayer heroes' having higher rankings than Sam Johnson, ranking him as merely 'friendly' to taxpayers.

On the Ways and Means Committee, he was an early advocate and, then, sponsor of the successful repeal in 2000 of the earnings limit for Social Security recipients. He proposed the Good Samaritan Tax Act to permit corporations to take a tax deduction for charitable giving of food. He chairs the Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations, where he has encouraged small business owners to expand their pensionand health benefits for employees.

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2004 campaign

Johnson ran unopposed by the Democratic Party in his district in the 2004 election. Paul Jenkins, an Independent, and James Vessels, a member of the Libertarian Party ran against Johnson. Johnson won overwhelmingly in a highly Republican district. Johnson garnered 86% of the vote (178,099), while Jenkins earned 8% (16,850) and Vessels 6% (13,204).

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2006 campaign

Johnson, like all House members, will be up for re-election in 2006, and has announced that he will run again. He will have an opponent in the Republican primary, Robert Edward Johnson, of Princeton and the University of Chicago, a database consultant and former economics professor and a strong opponent of the war in Iraq and the continuation of US troop presence there.

The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Dan Dodd and Libertarian Chris Claytor, both West Point graduates.

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Controversies

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WMDs

On February 19, 2005 at a church pancake breakfast in Allen, Texas, Johnson relayed a conversation he had with President George W. Bush in which he claimed the WMDs must still exist, that they were in Syria, and personally volunteered to fly a jet over Syria and drop two nuclear bombs. Eleven days later he clarified his comments to say that he was "kind of joking" about the matter.[1]

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IRS audit of Texas group

On February 27, 2006, The Washington Post reported that Johnson had sent IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson a letter on August 3, 2004, stating that Johnson had "uncovered some disturbing information" and received complaints of possible tax violations by a Texas nonprofit group, Texans for Public Justice. Johnson said he was sure the IRS would follow up. "I ask you to report back your findings of each of these investigations directly to me," the letter said.

The nonprofit group is perhaps best known for its March 2003 allegation of illegal spending by corporations during former House majority leader Tom DeLay successful 2002 campaign for a Republican takeover of the Texas legislature -- claims that culminated last year in the indictment of DeLay and two campaign aides for money laundering and conspiracy to hide corporate donations.

Johnson's letter to the IRS occurred after Barnaby W. Zall, a Washington lawyer, wrote a letter on July 19, 2004, to Johnson, complaining about the Texas nonprofit group and noting that the Johnson had "jurisdiction to review the Internal Revenue Service's supervision of tax-exempt organizations." Zall is close to DeLay: he was "of counsel" from 1990 to 1998 to the Williams & Jensen law firm, which has long represented DeLay's leadership political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority (ARMPAC). Zall is also a close friend of Barbara Bonfiglio, a principal at Williams & Jensen who was subpoenaed in January 2004 by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle as part of his inquiry into DeLay.

The IRS sent two auditors in 2005 to review the group's records; the reviewed lasted from January 2005 to early February 2006. No tax violations were found, according to a letter the IRS sent the group. The group's founder and director, Craig L. McDonald, said of the audit:

This audit was political retaliation by Tom DeLay's cronies to intimidate us for blowing the whistle on DeLay's abuses. Enlisting the IRS to intimidate critics is a dirty trick reminiscent of Richard Nixon. ... It is not a crime to report a crime, as we did with DeLay.
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External links

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