New Mexico’s Gary Johnson ditches the GOP to run as a Libertarian
Read the whole thing here.
Governor No is a Republican no more.
Gary Johnson, a former two-term governor of New Mexico known for wielding his veto power, will become a Libertarian candidate for president today.
Johnson, who will turn 59 next week, plans to formally announce his change of parties at the Capitol in Santa Fe.
He has been in the presidential race as a Republican since April, but he has barely registered in the polls. Johnson was shut out of all but two of 15 presidential debates this year.
“Anyone who looks at what has happened would say I’ve been treated unfairly,” Johnson said in a recent interview. “I think I’ve been hung out to dry by the Republican Party.”
In turn, Johnson will defect from the GOP in hopes of pumping oxygen into a presidential run that even he said was dying.
Johnson was a construction company owner without any political experience when he ran for governor in 1994. He won the Republican primary by a whisker and then upset the sitting governor, Democrat Bruce King, in the 1994 election.
Johnson acquired the nickname Governor No because he vetoed a record 200 bills in his first year in office. During his eight years as governor, he vetoed 742 bills.
Outside of New Mexico, Johnson remains a candidate who is largely unknown.
[…]
If you thought 9-9-9 was bad, get this:
He supports a 23 percent national consumption tax on retail sales. If it were enacted, he maintains, income taxes would be eliminated and the Internal Revenue Service would be dissolved.
To help balance the federal budget, Johnson said, he would cut Defense Department spending by 43 percent. That would drop its funding to the level it was at in 2001, when President George W. Bush took office.
[…]
He has some of the appeal that has usually gone to Ron Paul:
[…]
He wants to legalize marijuana and outlaw the death penalty. He supports gay marriage and wants to maintain abortion rights for women.
[…]
But his claim to have “governed as a Libertarian” is bogus:
[…]
Johnson did not reveal his position for marijuana legalization until after he had won his second term as governor in 1998.
[…]
However, the biggest problem I have with Gary Johnson is his willingness to back Chuck Baldwin for president in 2008 (he endorsed Ron Paul, but voted for Chuck Baldwin), which helped the Constitution Party to gain ballot access in New Mexico.
Charles Johnson referred to Gary Johnson as “Ron Paul Lite”. As an indication of the aptness of that phrase, check out this group of freaks and bigots that Gary Johnson appeared with last March. “Lite” only refers to how well-known and long-serving he is compared to Ron Paul. I don’t think he is any less of a nut.