U.S. Senate race Johanns cites his farm roots

Oct 22, 2008      Omaha World-Herald

Joseph Morton and Leslie Reed

Oct. 22, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- WASHINGTON -- Republican Mike Johanns makes no apologies about leaving one public office for another.

Johanns served two years of his four-year term on the Lincoln City Council before being elected the city's mayor.

He was elected to two terms as mayor but put more than 100,000 miles on his Chevy Corsica during his last two years in the post, campaigning for governor.

He left in 2005, midway through his second term as governor, to become U.S. secretary of agriculture.

"When the call comes (from the president), you can either say, 'No, I'm not going to do that, even though agriculture is our No. 1 industry,' or you can serve your country and do that job," Johanns said.

Johanns was agriculture secretary for more than 2 1/2 years before resigning in 2007 to launch his U.S. Senate campaign.

When Johanns left the Cabinet post -- which he called his "dream job" when nominated -- Congress was grappling with a $290 billion farm bill. He said he came to realize the most effective place for him was representing Nebraska in the Senate.

"That's really where you make the difference," he said.

If elected, Johanns said, he would seek a seat on the Senate Agriculture Committee. That isn't a criticism of Sen. Ben Nelson's work on the panel, he said, but rather a statement of the importance of farm policy to Nebraska.

Both of Iowa's senators and both of Minnesota's sit on the committee. Johanns said the panel is a logical choice for him because he grew up on an Iowa dairy farm and served as a farm state governor as well as agriculture secretary.

"It would be just a huge waste of a lot of experience not to be on the Ag Committee," Johanns said. "I think you could go across the entire breadth of the United States Senate -- there just isn't anybody that has the background that I do, period. But there isn't anybody that has the background I do when it comes to agriculture."

Johanns said he also would seek membership on a committee that handles financial issues, such as the Banking Committee. Retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., holds seats on the Banking, Foreign Relations, Rules and Intelligence Committees.

Johanns' campaign touts his record of public service, saying he has fought to balance budgets keep taxes low, foster economic development and improve the lot of farmers and ranchers.

His political opponents say his Senate run is his latest example of leaving a job unfinished.

Democrats also criticize Johanns' 2004 decision to pay, rather than appeal, a $145 million judgment for Nebraska's failure to license a low-level radioactive waste site in Boyd County.

Democrats were concerned the GOP would use the settlement as fodder for a 2000 Senate challenge to Nelson, a Democrat who was governor when the license was denied. At the time, Johanns was viewed as the most likely Republican to run against Nelson in 2000.

Johanns says he saved taxpayers $11 million by not pursuing a "meritless appeal."

Some state lawmakers grumbled that Johanns left them holding the political bag for raising taxes in 2002.

Johanns said he proposed balancing the state budget by delaying tax incentive payments to businesses and by cutting the University of Nebraska's budget.

But the tax incentive plan fell apart, and lawmakers thought his proposed NU budget cuts were too drastic. They overrode Johanns' veto to pass a $140 million per year increase in sales, income and cigarette taxes.

"It was the hallmark of Mike Johanns' tenure as governor. He would present proposals that weren't going to fly or weren't fiscally sound, and the Legislature would have to take the brunt of criticism," said former State Sen. Matt Connealy, now executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Former State Sen. Jim Jensen of Omaha, a Republican, voted to override Johanns' veto. He said Johanns did what he could, but the Legislature rejected his plan.

"At the time, we had an appropriations chairman with a lot of experience and a revenue chairman with a lot of experience. I think he allowed them to make the decisions," Jensen said. "I didn't feel he was ducking out or trying to escape from the responsibility of those times."

When Johanns took over the USDA, one of his biggest tasks was to reopen overseas markets to U.S. beef. Many countries ended or restricted the exports after the 2003 discovery that a U.S. dairy cow had mad cow disease.

Johanns says he reopened many foreign markets by the end of his first year on the job, although during his tenure the amount of beef shipped overseas never approached its 2003 level.

Beef exports hit $3.6 billion in 2003, then plummeted to $667 million in 2004. In 2005, after Johanns took over, exports increased to more than $1.1 billion and continued to climb. Through July, 2008 exports have reached about $2 billion.

National and local cattle groups give Johanns credit for laying the groundwork for beef exports' recovery. Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Nebraska Cattlemen, said Johanns worked tirelessly on the issue, negotiating with other countries on the technical restrictions placed on U.S. beef shipments.

"Was he successful?" Kelsey asked. "Well, yes and no. Important to us was the fact that he worked on it every day."

The highest-profile item on Johanns' agenda, however, was the five-year farm bill, sweeping legislation that includes farm subsidies, rural development programs and food stamps.

Johanns won praise for his openness and willingness to listen to all sides of an issue, but that doesn't mean everyone agreed with his proposals.

Johanns held 52 farm policy forums across the country before unveiling a proposal he billed as more friendly toward international trade, the environment and small farms.

He proposed cutting $10 billion in farm program spending compared with the previous five years, excluding supplemental disaster relief spending. He said much of the reduced spending reflected higher crop prices.

He also proposed eliminating subsidy payments to those with average adjusted incomes of $200,000 a year or more. He also suggested moving away from subsidy payments tied to crop prices and boosting fixed annual payments to growers. He said that worked better for farmers, particularly in times of drought, and were easier to defend in international trade negotiations.

Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, was not a fan of Johanns' proposal.

"Mike's a nice guy and he's pleasant to deal with, but we certainly had our differences of opinion on what was the best policy to move forward," Buis said. "Their proposal was short on really addressing the concerns of rural America."

Buis said Johanns could have done more to cut subsidy abuses by aggressively using regulations already on the books that require recipients to be actively involved in farming.

In the end, Congress rejected many of Johanns' proposals and cut off subsidy payments to individuals with more than $500,000 in annual nonfarm income or married farmers with more than $1 million in nonfarm income.

Lawmakers did not adopt Johanns' plan to shift more subsidies to fixed annual payments, and they established a permanent disaster relief fund despite his opposition.

The USDA's chief economist at the time said Johanns had as much influence on the farm bill as a secretary could.

Keith Collins, who worked closely with several agriculture secretaries before retiring this year, gave Johanns high marks for aggressively pursuing his proposals and for employing an effective management style.

"He was a significant contributor to the Department of Agriculture," Collins said.

--Contact the writer: 202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com

Newstex ID: KRTB-0149-28916329

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