By Zachary Gorchow
President of Michigan Operations
Posted: February 3, 2023 8:36 AM

Originally published November 23, 2004

House Speaker Rick Johnson's four-year run as House leader ends this year, and he will leave a legacy of guiding an inexperienced House through one of the state's most turbulent budget eras, but also one of frustrating several House Republican colleagues at his lack of emphasis on conservative policy and spending cuts.

Mr. Johnson's tenure – he is the first Republican to serve four consecutive years as speaker since Michigan switched to a full-time Legislature in 1963 – in many ways consists of two speakerships with a sharp contrast between his first two years and the second two. Term limits prevents him from returning to the House next year.

He wins considerable praise for the 2001-02 term when he moved then-Governor John Engler's agenda through the House while using his friendship with Mr. Engler to ease the governor's signature of House Republican bills. Along with then-House Democratic Leader Kwame Kilpatrick, he was instrumental in repairing the deeply distrustful and bitter relationship between the political parties in the House after a rancorous previous two years.

The speaker reversed the practice of his predecessor and gave chairs of House committees relatively free rein to pursue legislation. And then Mr. Johnson reached the height of his tenure when House Republicans crushed Democrats in the 2002 elections for a five-seat gain that gave them a 63-47 majority for the 2003-04 session – the party's strongest standing in the House in 50 years.

But even with a majority whose size no Republican speaker had enjoyed the beginning of a full-time Legislature, the next two years would prove difficult for Mr. Johnson. Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm had taken office, and several Republicans now say Mr. Johnson and the House GOP failed to offer a conservative policy agenda of their own while too often agreeing to Ms. Granholm's proposals to raise taxes and fees to solve ongoing budget problems.

The two major bills for which he fought hardest – comprehensive charter school expansion and racinos – would not succeed.

An aggressive conservative freshmen class, itching to cut the budget, entered the House in 2002. He deeply worried that Ms. Granholm and the Republican-led Legislature could hit a budget stalemate leading to a government shutdown. He began putting a tighter leash on committee activity although not nearly to the extent that occurred before him.

A tough two years seemed to culminate on Election Day this year when Democrats surprised Republicans and most Capitol-watchers by gaining five House seats in elections to wipe out the GOP gains of 2002 – the biggest Democratic gain in the House since 1986.

Mr. Johnson, 51, leaves office with many Republicans and some analysts viewing him as having been a good leader for his first two years in office, with poorer reviews the second two when Republicans needed a strong foil to the Democrat in the governor's office.

Democrats bid him farewell with a mixture of warmth for how he improved relations between the parties in the House and made it possible for many of Ms. Granholm's budget proposals to become law, but also disappointment at his treatment of House Democratic Leader Dianne Byrum of Onondaga. Ms. Byrum was the third Democratic leader to serve opposite Mr. Johnson during his tenure.

"I'm looking forward to being done, moving on to something else," Mr. Johnson said in an interview this week with Gongwer News Service at his Capitol office. "It's a cool job, it's neat, have had some great experiences -and some not so great – but the great ones are far more than the not so great. I don't have any regrets. I've enjoyed it."

'Homespun' style eased relations between parties

Craig Ruff, president of the Lansing-based think tank Public Sector Consultants, called Mr. Johnson a "conciliatory coalition builder who rose to the occasion."

The House was filled with rookie lawmakers, but Mr. Johnson's "homespun geniality" resonated and helped maintain the relevance of the chamber, Mr. Ruff said.

And the collegial relationship Mr. Johnson had with House Democratic leaders – although the relationship between he and Ms. Byrum eventually soured – was a huge improvement from the rancor that marked the two years before he became speaker, Mr. Ruff said.

"We all remember Mike Hanley and Chuck Perricone," he said. "Who wanted to go through that again? It was so personal."

Mr. Johnson loved to play off his background as a dairy farmer from tiny LeRoy. He often would draw analogies between legislating and farming.

Mr. Johnson is at his best when "he's just Rick, farmer Rick," said Rep. Larry Julian (R-Lennon), perhaps Mr. Johnson's closest ally in the House.

Rep. Jack Minore (D-Flint) served in the House during the same six years as Mr. Johnson and said he grew to like Mr. Johnson personally. What was a "very divisive and lousy atmosphere" in 1999-2000 "improved greatly" under Mr. Johnson, Mr. Minore said. Concern did arise in the latter portion of Mr. Johnson's tenure that he was not relating as well to Ms. Byrum as he did to Mr. Kilpatrick, he said.

Indeed, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Byrum never seemed to get along in the way that Mr. Johnson did with her predecessors. Tensions were exacerbated when House Republicans took a surprising gamble in the 2004 campaign and tried to defeat Ms. Byrum for re-election with a heavily negative television and flier campaign that failed, much to her delight.

It is telling that Ms. Byrum declined to comment for this story.

Mr. Johnson said of the three Democratic leaders with whom he worked, he had the best relationship with Mr. Kilpatrick. He said he also had a strong relationship with then-Rep. Buzz Thomas.

"I don't have anything against Dianne. I don't know if she does against me," he said. "You don't see Dianne and I sitting on the floor talking as much as what Kwame and Buzz did, but in reality, we worked on a lot of issues and produced a lot of votes for some tough issues in some tough budget times."

One issue that the candidates to succeed Mr. Johnson as speaker emphasized was their plan to give more power to committee chairs, letting them set the agenda for the caucus and their panels. Complaints had popped up that Mr. Johnson was wielding too much control over what committees did or did not do.

But those lodging such complaints might be surprised to know that Mr. Johnson ran for the post on the same issue in 2000. Shortly after assuming the speakership in February 2001, he said: "Our agenda is going to be put together by the committee chairs working with their committees. My message has been to members that we're not going to manufacture anything. It's going to come from the bottom up."

Mr. Johnson did deviate from this bottom-up philosophy a little. He occasionally circumvented the Tax Policy Committee, sending tax legislation to other committees after he had problems moving bills that could be painted as tax increases through the panel. He took the extraordinary step of removing then-Rep. Bob Gosselin from his committee chairmanship after Mr. Gosselin went in a sharply different direction on an important unemployment benefits bill than Mr. Johnson wanted.

The speaker also upset allies of Rep. Stephen Ehardt (R-Lexington) when he junked a key bill his Health Policy Committee drafted on health insurance rates for small businesses for a version he, Democrats and other Republicans preferred.

But Mr. Ehardt said despite a couple of disagreements on where to take Health Policy bills, he always felt Mr. Johnson respected his role as chair.

"I ran my committee, and he respected that," he said. "As far as I was concerned, there were never times where Rick stopped me from doing my job."

Mr. Johnson said he thinks the perception of him micromanaging committees to an extent stems from term limits producing inexperienced committee chairs who have not yet learned how to rule their committees with authority.

Many times, committee chairs ask Mr. Johnson to be the heavy on an issue, the speaker said.

"Another member goes to a committee chair and wants his or her bill moved," he said, laying out what he said is a common scenario. "The committee chair knows, 'Oh that's not a good bill. I shouldn't move that.' But they don't want to tell the member no. So they say the speaker said, 'Can't move this bill.' Or they move the bill, and then they come to me and say, 'Oh my gosh, don't run that bill on the House floor.'"

Budget dominates tenure

When Mr. Johnson won the Republican leader race in November 2000, it was hard to imagine that budget deficits would define his time as speaker. At that point in time, surplus revenue was overflowing state government thanks to the stock market run-up and superheated economy.

But by spring 2001, it was apparent that the good times were over. No one realized that another three years would pass with revenues well below where they were then, forcing two increases in the cigarette tax, a delay in the income and business tax cuts that passed when Mr. Johnson was a freshman and sharp spending cuts to public universities, health care, the prison system and economic development.

"The budgets have been, in the last four years, just much tougher to do from the standpoint of how you piece it all together," he said. "Members have gotten to the point now where they realize that cuts have got to be made, and it's a little easier to get the cuts made where before it was harder to get consensus."

Mr. Ruff called Mr. Johnson's management of a strapped budget the highlight of his tenure. Mr. Johnson found the balance between cutting spending without crippling key services and raising taxes and fees without harming the state's economic climate, Mr. Ruff said.

"For all the doomsayers cackling about how the House was going to be irrelevant and chaotic, Rick Johnson pulled it through," he said. "Nobody came to Lansing to oversee this ongoing wretched financial mess in state government."

There is something of a debate occurring in Republican circles about whether Mr. Johnson was a deft deal-maker or whether he failed to stand up to the Senate and Ms. Granholm and capitulated in key budget talks.

Perhaps the House Republican frustration over Mr. Johnson's style in budget negotiations with the governor and Senate was most palpable in one private discussion among House Republicans during House session. Mr. Johnson was informing Republican representatives that certain actions they wanted to take were a "deal-breaker" for the Senate or for the governor.

Eventually, one member rose and asked Mr. Johnson, "What's our deal-breaker?" Those who were there said Mr. Johnson did not directly answer that question.

But Mr. Johnson said lawmakers have to realize that an idea only matters if it can clear the House and Senate and win the signature of the governor. He also said such criticism ignores the many items on which House Republicans did succeed in negotiations, like stopping most of Ms. Granholm's proposed closing of tax loopholes, which Republicans deemed tax increases. He also pointed to the defeat of Ms. Granholm's estate tax and liquor tax increase as GOP successes and the preservation of the Merit Award scholarship and Tuition Grant program.

"You trade and bargain off different things," he said. "It's just the way the system is put together and the way the process works. You're going to win some, and you're going to lose some. Frankly, as you look at the cuts we've made, we've won quite a few the last four years."

Mr. Julian hinted at a certain naivete pervading those legislators who think Mr. Johnson failed to deliver on House priorities in budget negotiations. He suggested that reporters should ask the 2002 class of lawmakers, including House Speaker-elect Craig DeRoche (R-Novi), when their terms are up in two to four years for another appraisal of Mr. Johnson.

But Rep. Leon Drolet (R-Clinton Township), perhaps the spiritual leader of the aggressive conservative faction of the House Republican caucus, said the decision to raise some taxes and numerous fees were mistakes.

Instead of allowing the House to pass an increase in the cigarette tax, raise scores of fees and move up the date of property tax collections (something Mr. Drolet and other conservatives label a tax increase), Mr. Johnson should have insisted on cutting spending, he said. The House priorities he successfully protected were "Republican pork" like the Merit Award scholarship and life sciences funding, not the spending cuts that many House Republicans wanted, he said.

"Those things eroded Republican confidence and certainly blended our brand identity with the Democrats," he said.

But Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema (R-Wyoming), one of two Senate Republican leaders during Mr. Johnson's tenure (former Sen. Dan DeGrow being the other), said Mr. Johnson was confronting a reality that many House Republicans would not support the cuts that conservatives wanted.

It was the December 2003 budget resolution that was particularly hard to take for many conservatives. Ms. Granholm had been urging a one-year delay in the income tax cut scheduled for the following January to balance a budget that was slipping deeply into deficit.

Mr. Sikkema proposed a compromise: a six-month delay in the tax cut offset by a reduction in the Single Business Tax. Mr. Johnson had to tread carefully after Ms. Granholm seized on Mr. Sikkema's proposal because House Republicans were furious at Mr. Sikkema and the governor for making their own deal.

But eventually it became clear that Mr. Johnson supported the plan. After it passed, Mr. Johnson explained that he felt he owed it to Mr. Sikkema to allow a vote and "stand side by side" with him.

"I appreciated very much what he did, knowing the dynamics of his caucus, knowing the criticism he would take," Mr. Sikkema said.

And to those House Republicans who think Mr. Johnson negotiated poorly and capitulated on obtaining spending reductions, Mr. Sikkema said they are simply wrong.

"I thought he stood up very well for the House Republican caucus in terms of spending cuts and other issues," he said. "I just disagree with some people who say he wasn't tough in these sessions. He was."

Mr. Minore said Mr. Johnson worked well with Democrats in passing controversial proposals that Ms. Granholm wanted, such as the cigarette tax, earlier property tax collection and fee increases despite considerable resistance from his fellow House Republicans.

"The hallmark may be that he cooperated with and got along better with the governor (and) sometimes he may have had more problems with his own caucus on the critical issues," he said.

On policy, racinos and education dominate; conservatives left disappointed

Mr. Johnson's signature policy achievement was his enthusiastic, urgent support for bringing wireless Internet access into the state's classrooms through his "Learning Without Limits" program (since renamed "Freedom to Learn").

The speaker, when announcing the proposal, left news reporters somewhat dumbfounded when he stated his goal of having every classroom in the state equipped with a computer laptop containing wireless Internet access. The program is far from that goal, but together with the Michigan Virtual University and Department of Education, Mr. Johnson has led some big strides in that direction.

The attraction of wireless access is that it saves schools the cost of installing wiring.

"He's – this is kind of hokey – kind of the Johnny Appleseed in terms of technology in education," said Iva Corbett, Assistant Superintendent of the Chelsea Public Schools, which receives a Freedom to Learn grant. "He planted seeds that are going to continue to grow."

While Mr. Johnson succeeded in winning funding for his Freedom to Learn program, the one piece of public policy that he wanted most – authorizing slot machines at the state's horse racetracks, or so-called racinos – fell just short of becoming law despite his tireless effort. Mr. Johnson, with his farming roots, wanted racinos so they would provide new funding streams to bolster the struggling horse racing industry and agriculture in general.

Despite the probable defeat – it is not expected to receive a final vote before the year ends – Mr. Johnson's efforts won him the tremendous respect of the Michigan Farm Bureau, which already was a big fan. Perhaps Mr. Johnson's best sales job was both in convincing Mr. Sikkema, who personally opposed the proposal, to allow a Senate vote and then winning the votes there to pass it in the upper chamber.

Unfortunately for Mr. Johnson, the bill bogged down over differences between the House and Senate versions and then was crushed by voter approval of Proposal 1 in November, mandating a successful statewide vote for any new or expanded forms of gambling.

Wayne Wood, president of the Farm Bureau, said he marveled at Mr. Johnson's legislative skill. He recalled his surprise at Mr. Johnson engineering a quick, overwhelming victory in 2002 for a zero percent interest loan program to aid farmers who had been hurt by that year's drought.

Mr. Wood said he was anxious about taking a House vote on the issue when Mr. Johnson scheduled one, fearing it may be too soon. "But Rick's leadership had been able to make enough people aware," he said. "He obviously had done one heck of a job on it."

Mr. Drolet credits Mr. Johnson for a tireless work ethic and being well-suited to lead House Republicans when Mr. Engler was in office and setting the policy agenda. "He was able to very steadily guide the caucus when Engler was in power," he said.

But once Ms. Granholm took office in 2003, House Republicans resorted to tinkering when it came to policy and muddled through the next two years, Mr. Drolet said. Mr. Drolet qualified his criticism by suggesting that perhaps the enormity of leading a House with so little experience in a time of budget stress may have made an aggressive policy agenda impossible.

Mr. Johnson's primary legacy will be the legislative map that he shepherded to passage in 2001, Mr. Drolet said. The map put Republicans, who controlled the redrawing process, in the driver's seat to control the Legislature through 2012.

"The rest of his legacy is that you can't coast," he said. "Rick never coasted. He worked hard. But he and the rest of the caucus failed to deliver on substantial and relevant Republican policy."

But Mr. Julian said disappointment over the lack of a comprehensive conservative agenda is "kind of a facade" because many of the bills conservatives wanted to see passed in the House stood no chance in the Senate or with Ms. Granholm.

"What good does it do to send the helmet bill over to the Senate when they've said they're not going to take it up," he said, citing the House's recent passage of that doomed bill.

Tom Shields, president of Lansing-based Marketing Resource Group, which works with Republican candidates, said Mr. Johnson's principal focus was on the budget and on racinos, distracting from classic Republican themes (his firm opposed the racino package). He characterized Mr. Johnson as a "good leader," but one who did not always take Republicans in the right direction.

"They've gotten away from some basic elements of what a Republican caucus should stand for," he said, citing a need to emphasize cutting spending to eliminate deficits and cut taxes to address the business climate.

Mr. Johnson expressed disappointment at the fate of racinos and charter schools while encouraged that some charter school expansion outside of Detroit can continue because of Bay Mills Community College's ability to sponsor charter schools statewide, free from the 150-school limit imposed on how many universities can sponsor.

The speaker named land use legislation, greater authority for optometrists to conduct work that had previously been limited to ophthalmologists and – somewhat surprisingly – the legislation protecting Taubman Centers from a hostile takeover as major achievements during his tenure.

"From my background, you know, as agriculture and (a) farmer, we use to buy properties from a farmer whose father would die, pass on, and the kids, it was always, 'How many zeroes are on the check kind of thing?'" he said. "And Bobby Taubman was trying to save his father's business. And I thought that was really admirable."

While most of those interviewed for this story pointed to 2004's election losses as the low point in Mr. Johnson's tenure, Mr. Ruff of Public Sector Consultants cited the December 2002 House vote to ratify a new casino in Allegan County.

West Michigan Republicans were ardently against the casino, and aghast that their party leaders in the House, such as Mr. Johnson, would push hard to make it happen. The issue was clouded by allegations that the casino represented a favor to those wanting to open the casino - friends of Mr. Engler. Ethical questions on the casino eventually resulted in Mr. Engler declining to sign the casino compact.

"For many people, that just didn't pass the smell test," Mr. Ruff said. "That probably bruised him (Mr. Johnson) and his stature to some extent."

No issue inspired the type of deep anger within the ranks of Mr. Johnson's fellow Republicans as when he held a second House vote on ratifying the casino. West Michigan Republicans said Mr. Johnson pledged to hold only one vote on the issue (when the first one was held, the compact failed).

Longtime Republican uber-activist Peter Secchia of West Michigan ripped into Mr. Johnson on the issue afterward and remains unsparing in his criticism.

"We don't trust him," Mr. Secchia said of Mr. Johnson's standing in that part of the state. "We spent 30 years so that Speaker Johnson could have a majority. And then he comes along, new kid on the block, and runs over his caucus."

But Mr. Johnson said he had no regrets over scheduling a second vote on the casino resolution. "As a matter of fact, that's the only resolution that passed with more than 56 votes ever in this chamber," he said, speaking of casino compact resolutions.

Elections: A glorious night in 2002, but a disappointing one in 2004

It is telling that a number of those interviewed for this story cited Mr. Johnson's two election nights as speaker as the high and low points of his tenure.

Mr. Drolet said Mr. Johnson worked feverishly in the 2002 elections to boost the Republican majority, and it paid off with a five-seat gain to 63 seats. Republicans had used shrewd messaging, impressive fund-raising and a tireless work ethic to overcome several Democratic candidates who started out with a more impressive profile than their GOP counterparts.

But in 2004, cracks began to show in the vaunted House GOP operation that had produced an 11-seat gain over the 1998, 2000 and 2002 elections.

Mr. Shields said the shift away from conservative Republican themes cost the House GOP in the 2004 elections.

"He took a conciliatory approach the last two years in working with Granholm instead of setting a course that Republicans have traditionally taken in this state," he said. "If you go along with everything the governor wants, what makes you any different? Why vote Republican?"

Mr. Julian, who also cited the two elections as the high and low point for Mr. Johnson, said it would be unfair to blame him for the decline to the 58 seats that GOP had when he became speaker.

Democratic Party Executive Chair Mark Brewer said Mr. Johnson's exiting office with Republicans at a 58-52 majority despite a Republican-led remapping process speaks ill of the speaker's performance in elections. He also was critical of Mr. Johnson departing with the House Republican Campaign Committee having a substantial debt given the lack of gains in seats.

"That gerrymandered map that they operate under should be giving them 66-67 seats," he said. "They're underperforming now, and they're going to be underperforming even worse (next term)."

But Mr. Johnson continues to defend House Republicans' performance in the 2004 elections as sound. Republicans simply had a ton of seats to protect in a presidential election year that brought out more voters without any competitive races on the ballot besides the presidency and the House.

"We were in the same position in this election as what the Democrats were in '98," he said of the situation where term limits deprived the party of many popular incumbents in competitive seats. "They lost majority. We kept it. And we're set up to pick up seats in '06 and '08. Which was always my plan from the beginning.

The speaker looks to the future

Mr. Johnson plans to remain involved in Lansing after he leaves the House. He is waiting on making a final decision until after the Legislature adjourns for the year December 9 to avoid any conflict of interest questions.

At this point, Mr. Johnson said he would like to become a behind-the-scenes player in building Republican candidates in his part of the state while also spending more time at his farm.

"I've been involved since '78. Pretty hard to walk away entirely (from) the political world. I'm not planning for running on anything right now," he said. "Might be fun to work behind the scenes."

Mr. Johnson sees major challenges ahead for the next Legislature on the budget. The state has "nibbled on the edges of cutting government" over the past four years, but the next two years will be about "eliminating government," he said.

Basic questions like whether the state needs 148 legislators and as many local officials as it has will have to be examined, he said.

In thinking back on any mistakes he made, Mr. Johnson recalled a night in 2002 when the House was trying to pass a 50-cent cigarette tax increase to keep basic funding for K-12 schools intact. Mr. Drolet, an opponent of the tax increase, also decided to vote against the precursor to the tax vote - the school aid budget, which was premised on getting the tax increase.

The House fell short of votes, and Mr. Johnson angrily confronted Mr. Drolet on the House floor, leading to the usually amiable Mr. Drolet storming off the House floor.

"I got into an argument with Leon Drolet one night that I probably shouldn't have. Apologized to him later," he said. "But he was in this office after session that night, and we talked it through."

Of the great moments and not-so-great moments of which Mr. Johnson spoke earlier, he said the highlights have been meeting Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as they exited Air Force One. He also savored the opportunity to work with two different governors from different political parties. And he enjoyed the process of working the House floor to win tough votes.

The tough times have come in dealing with the personal situations confronted by representatives over a family member's health or in navigating the occasionally snippy relationships between lawmakers, Mr. Johnson said. The other difficulty of the speakership is the Capitol Building's isolation, being away from the wheeling and dealing and chitchat that occurs in committees and the House floor, he said.

"You get isolated in this office a lot from other members. I like to talk to people and meet with people. That's why I do the Beaner's coffee or go out to dinner more often with other members because (you) try to make yourself accessible to members all the time," he said. "That's really important. And you lose that in this office just because of the demands in the office and everything that goes on with it."