Philip W. Johnston (July 21, 1944 in
Chelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 s ...
) is an American businessman, politician and former Secretary of Human Services in Massachusetts and Regional Administrator of Health and Human Services for New England.
Johnston received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Master of Arts degree from the
John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
at
Harvard University.
In 1996, Johnston founded and is president of Johnston Associates, a communications and public affairs consulting firm. He is Chair of the Board of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, and the
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (formerly the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, or RFK Center) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit human rights advocacy organization. It was named after United States Senator Robert F. Kenned ...
. He also sits on the Boards of the
University of Massachusetts, the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps, the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, the
Roosevelt Institute, and Stop Handgun Violence.
He was elected to the state legislature five times. From 1984 to 1991, he was Secretary of Human Services in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Governor
Michael Dukakis. He was also executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in
Washington, D.C. In 1992, he was appointed by U.S. President
Bill Clinton as the New England Director for the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...
, where he served until 1996. Johnston was twice elected chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, in 2000 and 2004.
1996 Congressional election
In 1996, Johnston was a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 10th District of Massachusetts. Johnston was initially declared the winner, and an official
recount in several contested towns preserved Johnston's victory, though by a narrower margin. Following the recount,
Bill Delahunt sought judicial review in the
Massachusetts Superior Court. Judge Elizabeth Donovan conducted a
''de novo'' review of the contested ballots and declared Delahunt the victor by a 108-vote margin. The case was appealed to the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...
, which upheld the lower court ruling. The case is also noteworthy for the issue of "
hanging chads" in punch-card voting machines, and was later referenced as a precedent by the
Florida Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...
in ''
Gore v. Harris'' during the
2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida
The 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gor ...
.
Findlaw, Gore v. Harris, December 8, 2000
/ref>
References
External links
Johnston Associates website
*
1944 births
Living people
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Massachusetts Democratic Party chairs
Massachusetts Democrats
Politicians from Chelsea, Massachusetts
People from Marshfield, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Secretaries of Health and Human Services
University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni
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