Although former Rep. Jim Johnson, R-Colo., died last November at age 93, it was just last week that recollections of the moderate Republican who represented Colorado's 4th District from 1972-80 began to return to fellow Republicans as well as political reporters who covered him.
The 4th District was in the news in a big way, as controversial conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., handily won the Republican primary in the 4th after relocating from her former (and more marginal) 3rd District. The 4th is considered the most safely Republican of all the U.S. House districts in the Centennial State, just as it was when first carved after the 1971 Census and Johnson became its first congressman the following year.
A with-no-apologies middle-roader who was light years away from Boebert and the more right-of-center Republicans who increasingly win primaries today, Johnson embraced conservation and had no problems with the Supreme Court's 1973 decision essentially legalizing abortion. A decorated U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot from 1952-56, he had opposed the Vietnam War from the start.
Almost incredibly, he faced no major primary opposition from the right throughout his tenure in Congress. Late Sen. Bill Armstrong, R-Colo., who was elected to the House with Johnson and later served as a stalwart conservative U.S. senator, often voted the opposite of his fellow Colorado Republican but never uttered a word of criticism about him.
"While Armstrong was certainly more conservative than Johnson, they were close friends and remained so after they both left Congress," former state GOP Chair Dick Wadhams, Armstrong's longtime top aide, recalled to Newsmax.
When conservative former state Sen. Hank Brown had wrapped up the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Johnson in Congress in 1980, Newsmax pointed out to him that Republicans on the right were probably going to be happy because Brown would vote more to their liking than the incumbent.
"Probably," Brown told us, "But I can't say anything bad about Jim, and he's supporting me."
(Brown went on to be U.S. senator and president of the University of Colorado.)
When he was out of Congress in 1986, Johnson briefly resurfaced in the news by making a donation to Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful and Rep. Tim Wirth, D-Colo., in his heated contest with conservative Rep. Ken Kramer, R-Colo. While many Republicans were privately upset with Johnson's donation, their anger was kept private. Wirth narrowly won the race over Kramer.
A graduate of Northwestern University (Ill.), Johnson and wife Nancy settled in Colorado following his discharge and he earned a law degree at the University of Colorado. He served as a municipal judge and deputy district attorney and also taught law and coached track at Colorado State University.
Upset about U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1966, Johnson decided to run as an anti-war candidate against House Interior Committee Chair and veteran Rep. Wayne Aspinall, D-Colo. Aspinall's hostility to the growing environmental movement also fueled Johnson's candidacy but in the end, he lost with about 42%.
Six years later, after Colorado gained a seat and Johnson's Fort Collins home was in the newly redistricted 4th District, he jumped into the GOP primary and went on to win nomination and election. In the book "Watching Politicians: Essays on Participant Observation," Richard Fenno noted Jim could quote the Bible (or was it Shakespeare?) and swear like a sailor. Mr. Fenno wrote Jim was the kindest politician he met, and the only one to spend time with him after the workday was done.
Kind and good-natured were adjectives frequently used to describe Jim Johnson after his death. In disagreeing with a growing number of his fellow party members, he demonstrated something often wished for today among politicians but rarely achieved: to disagree without being disagreeable.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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