Patrick Hayes "Pete" Johnson Jr. (May 12, 1948 – January 20, 2025) was an American politician and lawyer who served as State Auditor of Mississippi from 1988 to 1992.
Early on in his tenure, he continued the anti-corruption efforts of his predecessor, warning county boards of supervisors about misuse of resources and threatening to claw back misspent funds, though by early May he had announced that he would wait for outstanding legal issues surrounding purchasing standards to be settled before seeking more claw backs.
[11][a] While Mabus pushed for state unit legislation which would mandate that county road construction would be considered in a unified, professional manner, Johnson appealed to the county supervisors to voluntarily commit to centralized management of road construction.
The two men entered a dispute when Johnson released a report predicting that switching to unit forms of government would be expensive for counties; Mabus accused him of inflating the projections.
The auditor's office was tasked with overseeing the transition and Johnson threatened to cut off funds from Tallahatchie County to ensure its supervisors' compliance.
[16] He later attributed his decision to switch to the election of moderate Republican George H. W. Bush to the presidency, as well as encouragement from U.S.
[4] President George H. W. Bush appointed him state director of the Farmers Home Administration in July 1992.
[24] He purchased a former motel in Flowood and began leasing it to the state's Department of Corrections as a minimum security women's prison in May 1994.
[4] In March 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him to become the first Federal Co-Chairman of the Delta Regional Authority.
[4] Johnson died at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 20, 2025, at the age of 76.