He survived the Democratic purges by former Republican County Attorney Ted Cannon 20 years ago and negotiated through numerous controversies as Democratic County Attorney Dave Yocom's administrative assistant. He honed his political survival skills as a department head for then-Salt Lake County Commissioner Randy Horiuchi and currently as Horiuchi's administrative assistant on the Salt Lake County Council.

But with the five-year percolating battle between two labor organizations fighting each other for membership among county employees about to erupt, Johnson may have met his match.

He's caught between his boss and his wife.

The Utah Public Employees Association (UPEA) has been the main representative body for Salt Lake County employees for years. But a relatively new labor group, the Utah Association of Government Employees (UAGE), has been aggressively courting employees and reportedly has been so successful that the membership division between UPEA and UAGE is about 50-50.

Salt Lake County Council member Joe Hatch has become so frustrated with the competing labor organizations he has said he doesn't know who represents whom. He is about to offer a proposal that would clearly define employee representation in Salt Lake County.

Johnson's problem is that his wife, Jan Johnson, worked for years with UPEA but left that organization about two years ago, with a severance agreement. Last November, she joined UAGE and has been effective in signing up members.

Horiuchi not only is a long-time UPEA loyalist, he has been a paid consultant for UPEA, helping them decide on candidate endorsements and other political issues.

Horiuchi, at last week's council meeting, publicly lambasted UAGE for its tactics during last year's budget hearings.

Johnson, according to the snoops at the county, is trying to stay as far from this issue as he possibly can.

Homeland Security: A California man, who was visiting family in Utah, was packing to go home recently and couldn't find his large-blade folding pocket knife. He figured he lost it somewhere in his relative's home, so he went off to Salt Lake City International Airport without it.

When he got home, he called his family and informed them that as he was unpacking, he found his knife in his backpack, which he had carried onto the plane. The knife got by security, but airport sleuths did confiscate his nail clippers.

Word of mouth: Managers at Thaifoon restaurant at The Gateway discovered recently that the best advertising strategies are those that were unintended.

When country and western music star LeAnn Rimes performed in Salt Lake City on Aug. 6, she told her adoring fans at the Delta Center that she had eaten dinner that day at the Thaifoon and she couldn't stop talking about how great it was.

On Aug. 7, the restaurant, which specializes in Asian cuisine, had one of its busiest days of the year, with many of the customers admitting they were there because because LeAnn Rimes recommended it.

prolly@sltrib.com