3/24/12

Gov. Gary Johnson wins LPIN straw poll

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has won the Indiana Libertarian Party's presidential straw poll held by that state's First District. Some teevee celebrity is that party's choice for its gubernatorial candidate in the state.

The party's convention is in Las Vegas in early May.

Montana's Secretary of State has reported that two members of the Libertarian Party will appear on the ballot contesting the Democrat and earth hater in that state's Senate race according to RealClearPolitics:
Montana State University political scientist David Parker says third party candidates usually pull more votes from the Republican candidate. And he noted Rehberg was harmed by a third party candidate in his failed 1996 challenge to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus. But Parker says two Libertarians will split such votes, and have no more effect than one Libertarian.
Will Ron Paul abandon the party of earth haters to seek nomination for the "Party of Principle?"

5 comments:

Eli Blake said...

Interesting. I lived in New Mexico when Gary Johnson was governor.

While I don't doubt his Libertarian bona fides (in fact I had a friend who told me that her husband used to buy marijuana from Gary Johnson when he was in college) I do believe that he has the same kind of irritating 'my way or the highway' attitude that characterized George W. Bush. For example, when elected as a Republican with a Democratic legislature, he didn't even try to work with them and instead resorted to public name-calling from virtually the fist moment he was elected. Later he blanket vetoed every single budget bill they passed their first year-- admitted not reading them, just vetoed every single bill.

I never saw him work cooperatively with anybody-- not the legislature, not the federal government (even after Bush was elected in 2000,) not state universities and other businesses, not even with his own cabinet heads. He won twice by pluralities (the Green party was big in New Mexico in the 1990's) but tried to govern like he had the support of a majority of voters even though that was never true.

larry kurtz said...

Thank you for your input, Eli.

The national press is avoiding Johnson to cover Buddy Roemer running as the Americans Elect candidate. Do you expect Ron Paul to leave the GOP and run with Johnson?

CFroh said...

Like Eli, I've met many voters who lived in New Mexico while the governor was Gary Johnson. Not surprisingly, their experience with the governor was different from Mr. Blake's. If one considers the poll from last Fall's GOP primary that among the candidates, only Governor Johnson was popular among home-state voters (http://www.capitalfreepress.com/3272-gary-johnson-receives-highest/), that poll bolsters what I'm saying. In his speeches Mr. Johnson jokes how New Mexicans greet him with "all 5 fingers". According to the most recent Public Policy Polling comparison of Mr. Johnson with Obama and his status quo clone Romney, Johnson has 7%, half way to the 15% required for an invitation to this Fall's debates, where all deals are off. http://www.examiner.com/independent-in-national/new-poll-shows-libertarian-johnson-at-7-percent. In his home state of NM, Gary would get 22%, and remains highly popular: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2011/12/barack-obama-is-considerably-less-popular-in-new-mexico-now-than-he-was-in-2008-he-won-57-of-the-vote-there-but-now-has-an.html

larry kurtz said...

Thank you for stopping by. An earlier post.

Gary Johnson 2012.

larry kurtz said...

Gov. Johnson on Colbert Report.