Rep. Nancy Johnson (R) Elected 1982, 12th term
Born:	Jan. 5, 1935, Chicago, IL
Home:	New Britain
Education:	U. of Chicago, 1951-53, Radcliffe Col., B.A. 1957, U. of London, 1957-58
Religion:	Unitarian
Marital Status:	married (Theodore)
Elected  Office:	CT Senate, 1976-82.
Professional Career:	Pres., Sheldon Community Guidance Clinic; Adjunct Prof., Central CT St. Col., 1968-71.
DC Office	2409 RHOB20515, 202-225-4476; Fax: 202-225-4488; Web site: www.house.gov/nancyjohnson
State Offices	Danbury, 203-790-6856; Meriden, 203-630-1903; New Britain, 860-223-8412; Waterbury, 203-573-1418.
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Over the years, Connecticut's stony soil has become the home of some of the most affluent people in the nation and the world. This is true even in the hills of northwest Connecticut, off the interstates and far from Connecticut's small urban capital of Hartford and its sometime booming edge city of Stamford. Here are exquisite Yankee towns like Washington and Kent, once prosperous in the post-Revolutionary era when Connecticut's ship owners accumulated capital and invested it in factories and mills, and now the "anti-Hamptons," a country-home mecca for ultra-rich New Yorkers seeking to avoid the glitz of Southampton and East Hampton. Not far away are small industrial cities like New Britain, America's ball bearing capital for years; Meriden, which turned from ivory combs, clocks, cutlery, and silver, to producing electrical signaling equipment, jewelry, biotech filters, and nuclear instruments; Waterbury, once the nation's largest producer of brass, where political corruption and economic malaise resulted in the state taking over its finances in 2001; and Danbury, once the nation's leading producer of hats, but now a growing corporate headquarters with an eclectic mix of recent immigrants from South America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. Over the hills from Hartford are Avon and Simsbury, booming towns that have become comfortable bedroom communities and the home of champion international ice-skaters.

The 5th Congressional District of Connecticut covers much of the western side of the state, dipping down to include the northern towns of Fairfield County. It has two arms that reach into the hills of central Connecticut--one to Democratic Meriden, and the other to the affluent and Republican-leaning Farmington Valley suburbs of Hartford. This district was carefully drawn by a bipartisan redistricting commission to provide a "fair fight" between two incumbents forced into the same district because Connecticut lost a House seat in the 2000 Census.

The congresswoman from the 5th District is Nancy Johnson, a Republican first elected in 1982. She grew up in Chicago, the daughter of a Republican state legislator, came east to school, then lived in New Britain as a doctor's wife and a teacher, raising three children while active in charitable and community affairs. She was elected to the Connecticut Senate in 1976 from a heavily Democratic district. When 6th District Congressman Toby Moffett ran against Senator Lowell Weicker in 1982, Johnson won the House seat, defeating Bill Curry, then a 30-year-old nuclear freeze organizer and later a Clinton White House aide and twice unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor.

Johnson is the third-ranking member of Ways and Means and chairs its Health Subcommittee. Her record has been fairly liberal on cultural issues and consciously moderate elsewhere, but market-oriented on much of her committee work. For years, she has been one of the most active and productive legislators in the House. In 1993 and 1994 she opposed the Clinton health care plan, enduring gratuitous and sexist insults from then-subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark in hearings, and her efforts contributed to its demise. Her efforts to reshape Medicare included sponsoring the first preventive health care benefits for seniors and measures to strengthen community hospitals, nursing homes and Medicare Choice plans. She was the lead Republican sponsor in 1997 of enactment of the CHIP health coverage for uninsured children. Her work in 2003 on the Medicare/prescription drug law was a major milestone, both for herself and her party. It was passed with scant specific direction from the Bush White House, after months of closed-door negotiations among a dozen congressional leaders and key committee players, all of them Republicans, except for Democratic Senators Max Baucus and John Breaux. Johnson, the only woman in that group and the only moderate Republican, brought an understanding of the policy and partisan impact of complicated provisions. A key part of the final agreement that received relatively little attention was Johnson's program for chronic disease management for seniors, including steps to assure proper coordination of medication and medical treatment.

On Ways and Means Johnson also worked to increase the Independent Living program for older foster care children and to help fathers on welfare get jobs and develop parental skills. In 2002, the House passed her resolution urging Major League Baseball to implement a mandatory program to test for steroid use; two years later, she got results. And she responded to constituent unhappiness over the decision of New Britain-based Stanley Works to reincorporate in Bermuda to save $30 million annually in federal taxes, by introducing a bill imposing a moratorium on such actions. In early 2005, she said that Social Security changes were urgently needed and supported personal retirement accounts.

Johnson has on occasion bucked the House Republican leadership. She voted against the Contract with America crime package, has supported abortion rights (Johnson harshly criticized Bush's executive order reimposing a ban on federal aid to international organizations that discuss abortion), was one of the first Republicans to sign a discharge petition for the Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill and introduced legislation to prevent oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But she also cooperated often with Speaker Newt Gingrich, and that caused her electoral trouble in 1996, when she chaired the House ethics committee during its investigation of charges brought by Democrats against him. Her opponent called her "an enabler and participant in the right-wing Republican agenda," and national liberal groups targeted the district. Johnson readily admitted that her role on the ethics committee "absolutely hurt me" in the election, which she won 50%-49%. In March 2004, a bit later than other Connecticut Republicans, she called on Gov. John Rowland to resign. In November 2004 she opposed the move to drop the requirement that House Republican leaders step aside after an indictment. With Christopher Shays and Rob Simmons, she opposed the recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, which hoped to open a casino in western Connecticut.

In 2002, this senior lawmaker was faced with redistricting and the unpleasant task of running against feisty Democratic colleague Jim Maloney. Although the new district was drawn evenly--in both geographic and partisan terms--from the old districts, Johnson entered the contest with some clear-cut advantages: She was a more experienced legislator, with a longer record of performance; she was a better fundraiser, including the most funds received from the pharmaceutical and hospital industries by any House candidate that cycle. In addition, Maloney didn't help his cause by reaffirming a pledge not to seek another term in 2004. Neither contender held anything back, with the Hartford Courant describing Johnson as "a pit bull in pearls," and Maloney as "the bulky junkyard dog of Connecticut politics." Maloney depicted Johnson as an ally of the powerful who failed to defend the weak. Johnson stressed her ability to cross party lines and the respect accorded her in Washington. Johnson won a comfortable 54%-43% victory, carrying 37 of the 41 cities and towns. So complete was Johnson's victory that she led Maloney 50%-48% in his old district; in her old district, she won 59%-39%. In 2004 she won 60%-38%, carrying every city and town but tiny Cornwall and her heavily Democratic hometown of New Britain. She likely will hold this seat as long as she wants it, but it should be a competitive district if she does not run.

Johnson faces a more immediate decision on whether and how to run for the Ways and Means chairmanship in 2006, when Bill Thomas will be term-limited and she will be 71. Although there is little doubt that she has the political and policy skills required for the job, the difficulties that she endured in chairing the ethics committee may be a warning of the challenges that confront a pragmatic moderate seeking to steer a course through the polarized House. So she may defer to the more senior Clay Shaw.

Committees

• Ways & Means (3d of 24 R): Health (Chmn.); Human Resources.
• Joint Committee on Taxation (3d of 5 Reps.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	45	40	0	55	100	54	100	56	69	41	--
2003	35	--	25	70	--	54	79	57	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	49%	--	51%		47%	--	53%
Social	57%	--	42%		59%	--	41%
Foreign	46%	--	52%		49%	--	50%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Nancy Johnson (R)	168,268	60%	$1,241,036
	Theresa Gerratana (D)	107,438	38%	$128,229
	Other	5,741	2%
2004 primary	Nancy Johnson (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Nancy Johnson (R)	113,626	54%	$3,752,161
	Jim Maloney (D)	90,616	43%	$2,075,621
	Other	5,212	3%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (63%); 1998 (58%); 1996 (50%); 1994 (64%); 1992 (70%); 1990 (74%); 1988 (66%); 1986 (64%); 1984 (64%); 1982 (52%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 153,616 (49%) Bush (R) 152,504 (49%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 146,599 (52%) Bush (R) 121,424 (43%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Fifth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 4
• District Size: 1,282 square miles
• Population in 2000: 681,113; 85.9% urban; 14.1% rural
• Median Household Income: $53,118; 7.7% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 22.4% blue collar; 62.9% white collar; 14.6% gray collar; 11.9% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 80.2% White, 5.2% Black, 2.1% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.5% Two+ races, 0.3% Other, 10.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 14.5% Italian, 12.7% Irish, 8.2% German
• Click here for statewide demographic data.