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[[File:RJ_Johnson_WiSJ_2011_482x942px.jpg|150px|thumb|right|R.J. Johnson. Photo: ''[http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/john-doe-targets-go-on-the-record-to-slam-scott/article_b70a756e-31b6-5f45-a850-5b4d0e19e778.html Wisconsin State Journal]'']]'''Richard A. "R.J." Johnson''' is a Republican political strategist who has been a top advisor to Wisconsin governor [[Scott Walker]]<ref name="growing pains">David Catanese, "http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/run-2016/2015/07/06/scott-walkers-growing-pains Scott Walker's Growing Pains]," ''U.S. News & World Report'', July 7, 2015.</ref> and to the politically active non-profit [[Wisconsin Club for Growth]].<ref name="funds funneled">Patrick Marley, Daniel Bice, and Lee Bergquist, "[http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-wanted-funds-sent-to-wisconsin-club-for-growth-b99336519z1-272364371.html Walker wanted funds funneled to Wisconsin Club for Growth]," ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', August 22, 2014.</ref> His consulting firms, run with business partner Deborah Jordahl, are R.J. Johnson and Associates and Coalition Partners, LLC (now known as Johnson Jordahl, LLC).<ref name="johnson linkedin"/><ref>Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, "[https://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=C075384&hash=1512708012&searchFunctionID=ecf4e366-e96e-4d6a-ad84-c23baf7d3b62&type=Simple&q=Johnson+Jordahl Johnson Jordahl, LLC]," corporate registration, accessed July 2016.</ref>
Johnson, described by Scott Walker as "my Karl Rove" in an email to Karl Rove asking for a million dollars for his recall campaign, was at the center of the 2012 (see [http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/timeline-john-doe-ii-investigation/html_1fac3180-e698-11e3-8653-001a4bcf887a.html timeline]) bipartisan John Doe criminal investigation into potentially illegal campaign coordination between Walker's recall campaign committee and ostensibly independent groups including Johnson's [[Wisconsin Club for Growth]] (WCFG), [[Citizens for a Strong America]], [[Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce]], [[America American Federation of for Children]], [[Americans for Prosperity]], [[Republican Governors Association]], [[Republican State Leadership Committee]], and others.<ref name="criminal scheme"/> The investigation was shut down by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in July 2015 after two of the justices, Justice Gableman and Justice Prosser -- who were elected with huge expenditures by many of the Wisconsin groups under investigation -- refused to recuse. It was later learned that Scott Walker and others credited Justice Gableman's 2008 electoral victory to the independent expenditures controlled by R.J. Johnson.<ref name="SupremeCoverUp">Mary Bottari, [http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/09/13142/gableman-wi-supreme-court Supreme Cover-Up: How the Wisconsin Justice System Failed in the Walker John Doe], ''PRWatch.org'', September 18, 2016.</ref>
==Johnson's Role in Campaign Investigated under John Doe==
