The congressman from the 4th District is Hank Johnson, a Democrat who won the seat in 2006. He was born in Washington, D.C., where his father was director of classifications and paroles for the Bureau of Prisons and his mother was a schoolteacher. He practiced law as a civil and criminal litigator, served 12 years as a magistrate judge in DeKalb County and then five years on the DeKalb County Commission. He resigned from the commission to run for Congress. Although his immediate family members are Presbyterians, he has been a Buddhist since the 1970s; he and Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, are the first practicing Buddhists in Congress. “If you could say what drives me, it’s the middle ground, the middle way,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2009, invoking a Buddhist principle. Read More

The congressman from the 4th District is Hank Johnson, a Democrat who won the seat in 2006. He was born in Washington, D.C., where his father was director of classifications and paroles for the Bureau of Prisons and his mother was a schoolteacher. He practiced law as a civil and criminal litigator, served 12 years as a magistrate judge in DeKalb County and then five years on the DeKalb County Commission. He resigned from the commission to run for Congress. Although his immediate family members are Presbyterians, he has been a Buddhist since the 1970s; he and Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, are the first practicing Buddhists in Congress. “If you could say what drives me, it’s the middle ground, the middle way,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2009, invoking a Buddhist principle.

Johnson ousted Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney in the primary. McKinney had served five terms in the House before losing her seat to Denise Majette in the 2002 Democratic primary. But she won it back two years later, after Majette vacated it to run for the Senate. She was a controversial incumbent, once suggesting that President Bush might have had prior knowledge of the September 11 terrorist attacks but did not act on it because a war on terrorism would boost defense stocks held by his father’s friends. Her own party lost patience with her after she struck a Capitol police officer who had stopped her at a security checkpoint.

In the July 18 primary, McKinney led Johnson, 47%-44%, but her failure to break the 50% threshold in the three-candidate field forced a runoff three weeks later. Johnson gained additional momentum after the primary. His fundraising suddenly picked up, as donors, including former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, weighed in against McKinney. She responded by criticizing Johnson’s past financial troubles, which included declaring bankruptcy in the late 1980s. But in the runoff, turnout was up and Johnson beat McKinney easily, 59%-41%. He won 57%-43% in McKinney’s stronghold of DeKalb. Johnson breezed to victory in the general election against minor opposition.

In the House, Johnson has a solidly liberal voting record and a reputation as a thoughtful lawmaker. Republicans, however, have taken him to task for what they consider his embarrassing verbal gaffes. After South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted, “You lie!” at President Obama during a September 2009 address to Congress, Johnson suggested racial tensions would be inflamed and said, “We’ll have folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again” if no disciplinary action was taken against Wilson. At an Armed Services Committee hearing in 2010, he expressed concern that the island of Guam “will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.” He sought to explain that he was “using a metaphor” to describe how adding more military personnel to Guam could hamper its ecosystem and infrastructure.

On the Judiciary Committee, Johnson questioned political hirings and firings at the Justice Department during the Bush administration and sponsored a resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. He also called for an investigation of the use of waterboarding, a form of coercion that simulates drowning that has been used on suspected terrorists. He backed relief for people facing housing foreclosures and sought protections against predatory lending. In 2009, he became chairman of the revamped Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, and he took a step in the direction of getting on a leadership track by joining the House Democratic whip organization in 2009.

Johnson won re-election in 2008 without major party opposition, the first such outcome in 52 years in the 4th District. McKinney considered a rematch with Johnson, but then decided to run for president as the nominee of the Green Party. In 2009, Johnson announced that he had battled Hepatitis C, an incurable blood-borne liver disease, for more than a decade. Two Democrats lined up to challenge him in the 2010 primary, and one of them, former DeKalb County head Vernon Jones, openly questioned his missing a series of debates. Johnson, however, insisted his health was fine and unveiled an endorsement from Obama, who said the congressman “has done an outstanding job.” He won the July primary with 55% to Jones’ 26% and former DeKalb County Commissioner Connie Stokes’ 18%, then trampled Atlanta business consultant Liz Carter in the general election with 75% of the vote.