Ridenbaugh Press/Northwest

Marc Johnson

Marc Johnson is the president of the Gallatin Group, a public affairs consulting company (what it does exactly seems a little too amorphous to describe in only a few words) and before that was chief of staff and press secretary for former Governor Cecil Andrus. Those who go back in Idaho politics in the decade before Andrus’ third campaign for governor in 1986, recall Johnson in a different context, that of a television newsman.

Begone the thought of your basic local commercial TV anchor; Johnson spent most of his years in Idaho television at public television. You might reasonably put him in the Idaho neighborhood of a Jim Lehrer/Bill Moyers community. He’s almost everyone’s first choice in Boise to emcee public affairs events, but not just because he handles them so smoothly; there’s an informed and thoughtful underpinning that gives the technique grounding. You saw it those years ago when he hosted news programs on public TV; he was (and presumably still could be) one of the best questioners in the state (noted here as a then-reporter who periodically fielded his questions).

All of which is noted now because Johnson has launched a new blog, the Johnson Post. (Picked up, it should be added, via a comment on Facebook by one of his co-workers.) His first entry concerns a slice of Idaho history, about Senator William Borah’s involvement with two key Supreme Court appointments and confirmations, timely now of course because of the current confirmation activity.

A suggested read. We’ll look forward to see what Johnson posts about next.