The New American magazine, published by The John Birch Society, has a profile of former Governor Gary Johnson on its website @ www.thenewamerican.com. Jack Kenny writes that
“The man known as “Governor Veto” will take his case for smaller, less intrusive, constitutional government to the voters as the U.S. Libertarian Party nominee for President of the United States. At their Las Vegas convention, the Libertarians chose former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on Saturday as the party’s standard-bearer. Johnson earned his nickname during his eight years (1995-2003) at the Santa Fe State House, where he vetoed more than 750 bills passed by the Legislature. Johnson himself brought up the “Governor Veto” label at the convention, pointing to it as evidence of his strength of character.”
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>”The former chief executive won 70 percent of the votes cast by the 632 delegates, handily defeating runner up Lee Wrights, an Air Force veteran with no previous political experience.”
Mr Kenny notes that “…The ex-governor proposes to cut federal spending by roughly $1 trillion in order to balance the budget within a year.” He also mentions that Gary Johnson is “a self-made entrepreneur who started a door-to-door handyman business that he grew over 20 years into a construction company with more than 1,000 employees.”
After pointing out that Libertarians will not have the huge campaign funds available to President Obama or Mitt Romney, he concludes by observing that “…Libertarians are hoping this year to gain votes in the general election from supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul.”
“Paul received 432,179 votes, or 0.47 percent as the Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1988. A champion of limited federal government under a strict interpretation of powers delegated by the Constitution of the United States, Paul is the Republican candidate most similar to Johnson in political principles and positions.”
Full report by Jack Kenny @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/11278-gary-johnson-libertarian-governor-veto
Anything over > 0.5% would be impressive for an LP ticket. 5% is just delusional. About as delusional as Ron Paul supporters who thought he would win the GOP nom.
I went to Las Vegas to support R. Lee Wrights, and voted for him for president. Nonetheless I think we have a great ticket in Gary Johnson and Jim Gray.
No candidate will ever be perfect, but Governor Johnson is a nominee nearly all of us can get behind. It’s up to us to make this the best year ever for the Libertarian Party.
I agree with Ryan C. I am a strong supporter of the Johnson/Gray ticket and only 5% will impress me as being in the “fantastic result” category. I won’t prognosticate on whether we can get to that point as there are too many variables in play right now to make a reasonable analysis. But anything less than 5% will be more of the same from my perspective. Sure, by LP standards it would be a jump, but we need more than just a jump, we need to shock the political elite in this country. If we can’t do that with this ticket, then my emphasis will likely shift to local races/ground up/slow build strategies, which is less glamorous but just as important for our long-term prospects. Until 2016 of course, when I’ll catch the Presidential ticket bug yet again…
Thanks Stuart. I know well what historical LP vote results have been. From my perspective, if Johnson only gets ~1M/~1%, that would hardly qualify as “impressive”. That level of popular support ought to be “expected” from a candidate like Johnson, otherwise, it does not reflect well on the organization and resources of the LP. To me, 5% would be “impressive”. How would you define “impressive”?
Andy @3, I voted for Johnson and Grey as the most qualified and experienced team that the LP has ever put forth for president/v.p. Finally, a ticket that shrinking-violet Libertarians can proudly tout to their friends and acquaintances without being embarrassed.
The bandwagon needs to start rolling now with as much free publicity for Johnson/Grey as possible. LPers can start calling in to talk shows,
writing letters to the editor, displaying bumper stickers, circulating messages in the existing Ron Paul Meetup groups (very important to do every time RP gets crapped on by the GOP establishment). And our LP organizations have to be prepared to welcome and sign up what we hope will be legions of voters attracted by the Johnson/Grey contrast to the Obama-Romney evil of two lessers.
Correction to first sentence @7 – The LP ticket has never exceeded 1,000,000 votes with both the highest vote total (921,128) and highest percentage ( ~1.1%) both occurring in 1980.
@5 Ryan – The LP ticket has never exceeded 1,000,000 votes and highest percentage was ~1.1% both in 1980. With a candidate that has more Executive Branch experience than Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama combined and a ticket with, imho, a far clearer libertarian message than our 2008 ticket, I am hopeful that Governor Johnson will easily surpass these figures. There are other factors (such as ballot access) that may help or hinder the LP vote totals.
For me, vote totals that guaranty us ballot or party status in as many states as possible would be sufficient. In Maryland 1% would be quite helpful. I leave it to experts like Richard Winger for more details in other states. The resources we are forced to expend in time and effort for ballot and party recognition are enourmous.
I agree with Andy (#3) as well. The key to an impressive LP vote total are the Ron Paul Republicans.
What is an “impressive” vote total? 10%? 5% 2%
I agree with Andy 150%
I didn’t vote for Gary Johnson or Jim Grey at the LP National Convention, and I’m not really on their bandwagon right now, but I will say that if they can manage to not alienate the Ron Paul crowd I think that they’ll have a decent chance of getting an impressive (by Libertarian Party standards) vote total this year.
Well, If he wants to get Ron Paul support, the John Birch magazine is a good place to start.
I’m not a libertarian, but I can respect a governor that uses his veto and isn’t a puppet for the establishment.