A new Reason-Rupe poll released September 21 shows Libertarian Gary Johnson pulling 6% of the vote out of 1006 adults with a margin of error of 3.8%.
Johnson is still polling far behind the major party candidates, with President Barack Obama taking 49 percent and Republican challenger Mitt Romney taking 40 percent in a three-way race, according to Reason-Rupe.
A JZ Analytics/Washington Times poll from May had the Libertarian at only two percent. And a second JZ Analytics poll from July had Johnson at 5.3 percent.
Another JZ Analytics poll from earlier this month, however, put Johnson at just 4.3 percent.
Read more at The DC: Poll: Gary Johnson rakes in six percent of the vote
Check out the full poll results here.
Comments removed from this thread; see archive.org to find them.
All Gary needs to do is match Nader’s 2000 performance in both the popular vote total and % in order to be the best Libertarian Presidential candidate ever! If he’s smart, he’ll target trying to hit into double digits in states where his message will do well. I saw that a poll in Minnesota had him polling well, if Ventura stumps harder for Gary and the GJ campaign targets MN with multiple radio and TV ads, Gary could do very well there!
Or for that matter Michigan Courts, the US 6th District Court of Appeals or the US Supreme Court (declined to intervene)
🙁
OK might have been preventable but MI??? Who could have seen THAT coming! I guess court precedents don’t matter to the MI SoS.
Oklahoma and Michigan – we are pretty much cooked.
Pennsylvania – still up in the air, but we have a pretty good chance.
Whitfield: “If all things remain equal and proceed as they did in 2008 we could expect Johnson to receive 1.0841% of the popular vote in November or about 1,424,442 popular votes.”
I’d be satisfied with that result. I’d be ecstatic with more than 2 million. Of course, if GJ isn’t on the ballots in Okla., Mich. & Penn., that’s going to hurt.
In September 2008, 3 polls included Bob Barr and he received 1%, 3.7% and 1% for an average of 1.9%. He received 0.4% of the popular vote in November or 523,713 votes nationwide. This September Gary Johnson has polled at 6% and 4.3% for an average of 5.15%. If all things remain equal and proceed as they did in 2008 we could expect Johnson to receive 1.0841% of the popular vote in November or about 1,424,442 popular votes. With these results the Libertarian Party would set new Presidential election records as its previous highs were in 1980 when Ed Clark received 1.06% of the popular vote or 921,128 votes. I personally think this will be the floor for Johnson’s actual results in November and that he will receive more than this. I am working hard to make this happen as I am sure many other Independent Political Report readers are doing, too.
Gary should focus on major campaigning in states Ron Paul did well in during the Primaries: Minnesota, Maine, Iowa, New Hampsihre, Nevada, Alaska, Vermont, etc.
Hell, maybe Gary should focus on campaigning in the Maine and Nebraska districts, he may be lucky to win one if he’s really lucky!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012
Justice Party
Rocky Anderson
Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City and founding member of the Justice Party, from Utah; vice-presidential nominee: Luis J. Rodriguez from California.[79][80]
Candidate Ballot Access:[81][82][83][84] Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington – (152 Electoral)
Write-In Candidate Access: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas
So if I read all that correctly, he’s only on the ballot in Mississippi? If so, that’s not a national candidate.
@10: Thank you. It’s nice to put more than a name to the various mentions.
To be fair, they also know that Obama is a Democrat & Romney is a Republican.
Winger: “I think most voters how realize that only about 6 to 8 states are in doubt. So in their own state, they don’t need to worry about wasted vote syndrome, for the other 42 to 44 states.”
Richard, with all due respect for you & all that you do, in every election for President most states aren’t in doubt. The idea that the wasted-vote syndrome isn’t a significant factor in those states is naive. Average voters don’t pay any attention to statewide polls nor recognize the significance of electoral votes. All that many of those people know is that Obama & Romney are the competitive candidates & they dislike one more than the other.
It’s 49-42-6 with leaners.
R/O is 52-45 with leaners.
Meaning Johnson “takes” 3% and 3%.
Another thing for me is national polls are moot. It’s all about the states, so state polls would be much more accurate. How can a national poll of 1000 people even be close to accurate? Especially since Johnson has more support in places like New Mexico and Colorado then he does in the South or the Northeast.
I have to agree with Zapper on this though, since it is clear Johnson may not be on 50 states, he should just start focus on the states where he can make an impact. That isn’t to say he shouldn’t do any campaigning elsewhere, but he should really focus where he libertarianism is more prevalent.
Aside from the presidential polling, I found Questions 41 and 42 of the poll quite interesting. These two questions asked if the person favored the government doing less or more, and whether government is too big or too small. These are very general questions, but the results are 49/49, so it shows the same kind of divide Mitt Romney was just talking about. In general, the more government 49% vote Democrat and the less government 49% vote Republican, yet 100% receive bigger government. The key for Libertarians is to make the public the fact that they can’t get any changes from the two big parties. Sadly, there are not enough resources to do that. Gary Johnson is a great candidate, but if he gets 1%, I will be surprised. Even with that, there will be one or two states where he is more than the difference between Obama and Romney and will get “blamed” if it affects the overall outcome. And this “blaming” will turn more people away from “wasting” their votes in the future. Ralph Nader’s experience after 2000 shows us this.
OK. What do you have in mind?
If you believe the polls 23% of voters who know who Gary Johnson is are going to vote for him. It looks like the key will be to reach people who do not know who he is.
I don’t get the sense that most voters realize this when petitioning.
I don’t think the wasted vote syndrome is as powerful nowadays as it was in the past. I think most voters how realize that only about 6 to 8 states are in doubt. So in their own state, they don’t need to worry about wasted vote syndrome, for the other 42 to 44 states.
@3 There was a time during the Presidential election in 1980 when Ed Clark was polling 5% nationally. The polling had Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan at whatever they were polling at and John Anderson at 15%, Ed Clark at 5%, and Barry Commoner (Citizens Party candidate) at 1%. That polling was the high water mark for the three alternative candidates.
On Election Day John Anderson received 6.61%, Ed Clark received 1.06%, and Barry Commoner received .27% of the vote. The vote total for the candidates were John Anderson 5,719,850, Ed Clark 921,128, and Barry Commoner 233,052.
Winger: “Listing on 3, for president, means respondents who are mad at both major parties go for the third choice, but that doesn’t mean they will behave that way in the ballot box when they see, perhaps six candidates.”
That’s a good point. I’d add that the numbers for alternative candidates always go a bit down anyway right before the voting. That’s when the damn wasted-vote syndrome really kicks in for some of those people.
That said, 6% right now, even in a 3-candidate poll, isn’t bad from my perspective. Still could mean a couple million votes, although losing Oklahoma & Michigan will hurt as far as vote total. Losing Pennsylvania as well would be awful.
“…maybe by 2016 the LP will learn.”
I wouldn’t count on it. The party pretty much does the same things every election cycle with pretty much the same results.
Johnson needs some major publicity to change the direction of this campaign and get a significant vote total: With no major new PAC donor to promote the campaign, with no sudden media interest, with no national TV advertising – essentially no advertising at all, maybe $100k will be scattered around on radio to little effect, there is no reason to expect a great vote total.
With the coverage he has gotten as a former governor, as the LP candidate, and as the leader in the 3rd ring, I expect Johnson will come in with more votes than Clark 1980, but a lower percentage of the total.
We could have done much better by using leverage and free media earned with a targeted small state advertising program on major network broadcast TV starting with WY, AK and ME beginning in late May or early June with only $150k … maybe by 2016 the LP will learn.
Michigan and Oklahoma are pretty much already lost. There’s almost no chance of any reconsideration or higher court intervention at this point, and the ballots are probably already being printed and distributed.
Pennsylvania looks more promising, but we could still lose there as well. I’m cautiously optimistic on that one.
Richard is right but we should work hard to make Gary Johnson relevant. Time is short.
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/?s=%22rocky+anderson%22
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Anderson
Who is Rocky Anderson anyway?
I have to agree with Richard. So many voters are just so unhappy with the two major party choices that any third choice in a poll is going to do well. In fact, I am surprised Johnson isn’t polling better than 6% in a poll constructed like this.
Any poll for president in the general election that lists 3 candidates, but only 3, is suspect. The only way to get a realistic poll result for Gary Johnson is to list at least Jill Stein and Virgil Goode and maybe Rocky Anderson also. Listing on 3, for president, means respondents who are mad at both major parties go for the third choice, but that doesn’t mean they will behave that way in the ballot box when they see, perhaps six candidates.
I would be shocked if he got over 1MM votes, unless some advertising money appears….yesterday.
Nevertheless, I would love to see it happen!
“4 Kevin Knedler // Sep 22, 2012 at 8:55 pm
Mr. Johnson will gain more votes in 2012 than all previous LP POTUS candidates combined since 1972?”
That would be nice if it happens, but him not being on the ballot in Oklahoma, and him having a strong chance of not being on the ballot in Michigan and Pennsylvania, could really hurt his vote total. Especially if he loses Michigan and/or Pennsylvania, both of which are top ten population states (Michigan #8 and Pennsylvania #6).
Mr. Johnson will gain more votes in 2012 than all previous LP POTUS candidates combined since 1972?
Can he exceed vote totals in November of 3,838,370 ?
Anyone recall higher L prez candidate poll results at this point in the cycle in previous years. These GJ poll results all seem good to me.
Great news
To anyone wondering, I deleted the previous post regarding the debate.