Personal Summary

Marc C. Johnson is a historian, writer and the author of Political Hell-Raiser: The Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) and Tuesday Night Massacre: Four Senate Elections and the Radicalization of the Republican Party (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). He writes a weekly political columnist for the Lewiston, Idaho Tribune.

Before retirement in 2017, Johnson was a partner at Gallatin Public Affairs, a Pacific Northwest-based public affairs/issues management firm. He managed the firm’s Idaho office from June 1994 to September 2012 and served as president of the firm from January 2006 until July 2010. Johnson served as chief of staff to four-term Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus from January 1991 to May 1994. As chief of staff Johnson had day-to-day management responsibility for the staff and budget of the governor’s office. He also served as the governor’s staff liaison to several state agencies including the Idaho Departments of Commerce, Transportation, Finance, and Insurance. Before being promoted to chief of staff, Johnson served four years as press secretary to Governor Andrus. He also served as campaign press secretary for the governor’s 1986 and 1990 election bids.

Johnson has a varied mass communications background including experience in radio, television, and newspaper journalism. He has written political columns and done extensive broadcast reporting and producing. Prior to joining Governor Andrus’ campaign staff in January 1986, Johnson served as managing editor for Idaho Public Television’s award-winning Idaho Reports program, a nightly one-half hour public affairs/news program that was broadcast statewide on Idaho’s public television network.

Johnson also produced and wrote numerous documentaries and hosted political debates. Several of his programs have been aired regionally or nationally on PBS and his writing has appeared in Montana The Magazine of Western History, the New York Times, the Washington Post, California Journal of Politics and Policy, The Blue Review and the website Zocalo Public Square.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Journalism, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota. Graduated, May 1975.

Publications

Tuesday Night Massacre: Four Senate Elections and the Radicalization of the Republican Party, University of Oklahoma Press, 2021.

Political Hell-Raiser: The Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.

“Mike Mansfield, Burton K. Wheeler, and the Montana Senate Campaign of 1946,” peer reviewed article for Montana The Magazine of Western History, Autumn 2020.

“The Man Behind Montana’s Contradictory, Confusing, and Occasionally Crazy Political Culture” – Zocalo Public Square, September 2019. 

“Making a Judge” – peer reviewed article for The Blue Review, A Journal of Popular Scholarship in the Public Interest, Boise State University, November 2016.

“The McCarthy Era in Idaho” and “The Shocking Death of Senator Lester Hunt” – peer reviewed articles for The Blue Review, A Journal of Popular Scholarship in the Public Interest, Boise State University, June 2016.

“Federal State Relations: A Matter of Balance,” (co-authored with Cecil D. Andrus) peer reviewed article for California Journal of Politics and Policy, 2014.

FDR, B.K. Wheeler and the Great Debate” – peer reviewed article for Montana The Magazine of Western History, Winter 2012.

“Defining Character: Montana’s Mike Mansfield” – a remembrance of the Montana Senator and long-time Senate Majority Leader.  Montana Magazine, March-April 2002.