Mr. John Goes to Washington
s a boy, when he was not breaking tires or washing trucks, Chris John canvassed the Louisiana countryside with his father, who was trying to get himself sent to Baton Rouge by the local voters.
Trucking executive John N. John Jr. ran for office three times before he secured a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1972.
By that time, 12-year-old Chris already knew more about the game of politics than most folks learn in a lifetime. Yet few guessed that this exposure to the process and to trucking would lay the groundwork for his own future as a federal lawmaker and trucking executive.
The conservative Democrat is a partner in the family company, John N. John Truck Line, along with his three older brothers. A recent visit with the freshman congressman in his Capitol Hill office revealed that his upbringing in the Cajun heartland of southwest Louisiana is still very much a part of him.
His early days helping out around the truck yard were just the kind of thing Chris needed to inspire him to greater career heights. “I learned a lot about hard work and discipline. Another thing I learned is that I wanted to work indoors.” Where he comes from, a typical summer afternoon might see the thermometer flirting with triple digits, with 100% humidity egging it on.
After high school, Chris headed off to the capital city, Baton Rouge. Before graduating from Louisiana State University with a business degree, he witnessed first-hand the intricacies of state government. While his father tended to legislative affairs, Chris pulled stints as a sergeant-at-arms and a page and delivered mail to legislators.
Politics “was just something I really liked,” he said, “and the more I got into it, the more I really enjoyed it. So, it was born through my father.”
If there are any contradictions in a small family business owner’s penchant for public life, Chris and family members don’t see them. They recognize that his politics are an extension of his father’s political legacy, as well as an outgrowth of his boyhood truck washing.
The elder John, the family says, viewed his company as a local economic generator as vital to the community as it was to his own well-being. Fiscal responsibility was inseparable from notions of public assistance. “He always had the people’s business first at mind,” Chris said of his father.
“If someone needed a job, he would find them one — he sent people’s kids to school,” said another brother John N. John III, about his father. “And back then politics was much less partisan. So it was difficult to say so-and-so was a Democrat or a Republican. It was just a logical balance for him.”
Chris John credits his own business instincts with his fiscal-minded approach to governance. He is one of 22 members of the Blue Dog Coalition in the U.S. House, a policy-oriented band of mostly Southern Democrats who encourage middle-ground solutions and bipartisan bridge-building.
Turning to the balanced-budget issue, Mr. John said: “It just makes sense. I do it in my own company, we do it in our households. I always say, ‘Even the state of Louisiana does it.’ So we ought to do it up here” in Washington.
As close as he was to his father, nothing could have prepared Chris for the dreadful news of his father’s death 15 years ago. Returning from a hunting trip one rainy night in 1982, the car the senior Mr. John was riding in slid under a bundle of utility poles extending from the rear of a turning truck. The driver of the car was killed instantly — Mr. John ended up in a ditch with massive head injuries. He had served 11 years in the Louisiana Legislature; he lived for six
ore months.
A year after his father died, Chris launched his own political career. Just 24 years old, he ran for and won a seat on the Crowley City Council in 1984. “That really provided me with a good foundation for politics and public service at the most local level.” A city council is “a tough place to serve,” he said.
Four years later he was elected to the same seat his father once held in the Louisiana House — and occupied that seat for eight years before his election to Congress in 1996.
Over the years, Chris said, he has been inspired by the ideals of hard work and compassion espoused by
is father.
“My dad really had two philosophies: that government is there to help people help themselves, and that ‘Democracy never guarantees your way but always guarantees your say’ — that was his big saying. And that’s what has motivated me all along and defined my own beliefs about public office. He knew some folks would never be able to hold their own end. He always said, ‘Some people are not as lucky as you are.’ ”
More than anything, his father’s emphasis on family life left the deepest impression. The congressman believes the success of John N. John Truck Line can be credited to family values. “We are a very close-knit Catholic family that grew up in a good family environment, and we use that. We take those experiences and throw them into our company mix.”
Family values, sound business ethics and years of exposure to the political process at both the state and local level . . . then Chris arrived in Washington.
“The first thing I learned was the partisanship that you deal with, within your caucus and your party. And that’s how you get committee assignments, which are so important up here, but not so important in the state Legislature. I had to really change my thinking and focus in on my committee assignments.”
Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) said he thinks Chris John has done a pretty good job of holding his own with the policy wonks and stuffed shirts inside the Capital Beltway.
“It has been my experience that too many people come up here with this idea of party loyalty, to the exclusion of anyone who disagrees with them, and to the exclusion of reaching a constructive solution,” said Mr. Tanner, who has served in the House since 1988. “But Chris has been eminently fair-minded and wants to reach constructive solutions on both sides of the aisle. He’s also very well-grounded and well-versed in the issues that are unique to the South.”
Mr. John considers his work with the Blue Dogs in helping to balance the federal budget the hallmark of his first term. And for a freshman, he snagged a some pretty good committee assignments, considering it’s not uncommon for new members to be served the “crumbs” when appointments are made.
He sits on the House Resources Committee’s energy and mineral resources subcommittee, and on the Agriculture Committee. An avid outdoorsman, he is in the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. The diversity of his assignments and interests mirrors the diversity of the 7th district he represents, an area dominated by huge oil and gas companies and the delicate farmlands that comprise the “Rice Capital of the World.”
“It’s a tough balance, but knowing my district the way I do — I grew up right in the middle of it — has given me a good basis from which to do it. I have to make sure everybody understands their responsibilities, and I have to make sure that I step on and walk that fine line.”
Notwithstanding his other life as a trucking executive, Chris John said he tries to keep the big picture in mind when making legislative decisions.
“I try not to focus in on one industry, whether it’s petrochemical or trucking or whatever. I believe that when we make decisions that are good for the economy as a whole, everyone is going to benefit, including the trucking industry and the state of Louisiana.”
He says being a politician has helped him keep his perspective. Family members frequently ask him, “Why are you beating yourself to pieces?” He just shrugs it off. “I would encourage anybody to get into politics, even my family. But it is a very tough business. It’s a very humbling experience, but it’s also an education you can’t get at any university. It’s incredible what I’ve learned in two years.”
Chris is unopposed in the next election, a stroke of luck in light of recent family events. His wife, Payton, recently gave birth to twin boys, Hays and Harrison.
“It couldn’t have happened at a better time,” he said.
