Philip W. Johnston

Philip W. Johnston (July 21, 1944 in Chelsea, Massachusetts^[1]) is an American businessman, politician, and former Secretary of Human Services in Massachusetts and Regional Administrator of Health and Human Services for New England.

Philip 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 at Harvard University.

Johnston is currently (since 1996) the president and founder 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. He also sits on the Boards of the University of Massachusetts, the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center, the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, and Stop Handgun Violence.

He was elected to the state legislature five times.^[2] From 1984 to 1991, he served as Secretary of Human Services in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Governor Michael Dukakis. He also served as 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 to serve as the New England Director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he served until 1996. Johnston was twice elected chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, in 2000 and 2004.^[3]

1996 Congressional election

In 1996, Johnston was a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 10th District of Massachusetts. Johnston was initially declared the winner,^[4] and an official recount in a several contested towns preserved Johnston's victory, though by a narrower margin. Following the recount, Delahunt sought judicial review in the Massachusetts Superior Court, and Judge Elizabeth Donvan conducted a de novo review of the contested ballots and declared Delahunt the victor by a 108-vote margin. The case appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld the lower court ruling. The case is also noteworthy for the issue of "hanging chads" in punch-card voting machines. Their court case would later be referenced as a precedent in the Bush-Gore Florida Supreme Court Case.^[5]

References

1. ^ 1983–1984 Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. http://www.archive.org/stream/publicofficersof19831984bost#page/158/mode/2up. 
2. ^ Johnston Associates
3. ^ Boston Globe, November 11, 2004, cited at highbeam.com
4. ^ Boston Globe, October 9, 1996, cited at encyclopedia.com
5. ^ Findlaw, Gore v. Harris, December 8, 2000