Gary Johnson May Be Done With Politics

Disgusted with the system? You bet.

This could be end of the political road for Gary Johnson.

In an exclusive interview with Capitol Report New Mexico on Friday morning, the Libertarian Party candidate for president said, "If there's no path to winning I'm really not" interested in pursuing another run for the presidency. "I'm not interested in duplicating what I've just done," Johnson said via telephone from his home in Taos.

On Election Night, Johnson became the first Libertarian Party presidential candidate to receive more than 1 million votes in a presidential election — something that the national Libertarian Party leadership said it was "thrilled about" — but the former two-term governor of New Mexico said, "I was kind of disappointed" in the showing.

"I thought the numbers would have been higher," Johnson said.

Comments

[CandiceAlphonse]

I contributed money to Gary Johnson 2012. The website said there would be some promotion of Gary Johnson like TV commercials, radio commercials on Rush Limbaugh, etc. There was nothing. Gary Johnson raised three million dollars. Where did the money go? It would seem that campaign manager Ron Nielson stole the money. I counted on hearing Gary Johnson having a voice in up to the election and contributing in the promotion of a message that more Americans need to hear. Instead we got nothing. Thanks to Nielson for screwing both Gary Johnson and America in one move.

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Candice,

There was nothing. Gary Johnson raised three million dollars.

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Candice,

"There was nothing. Gary Johnson raised three million dollars"

First off, one million of that was raised and spent by a Superpac which produced and ran their own television ads -- the one with the half-elephant/half-donkey Frankenstein-like appeal.

As Gary said in the Townhall, when he ran for re-election as Governor he spent $3 million just in New Mexico. The campaign spent $2 million nationally.

That "nothing" included:

the tv campaign

the radio advertising campaign

the four Gary Johnson vans and one RV that traveled the nation with bumperstickers, flyers, posters, palm cards and yard signs; they also transported the candidates to various events and while the drivers were volunteers, gas and lodging expenses were part of that "nothing."

the phones, someone to answer them; the website, and someone to update it; Gary's travel expenses (mostly airfare); the judge's travel expenses; Gary's scheduler (Grant) and Judge Gray's (Dianne), those all cost money.

Printing and shipping those yard signs, posters, flyers, bumperstickers, T-shirts (etc) to all our endorsed candidates, the 50 state directors, any LP state or national officer who wanted them -- all cost money. All part of that "nothing." And someone to handle the shipping (Jason); social media (Ryan), accounting (Kim) -- you want to do the FEC forms for us for free next time? Know how to keep on top of that?

Speaking of legal issues . . .

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. . . continued in my comments to "AddieAddie" below

[AddieAddie]

I was hoping that Gary Johnson would make a huge splash in the presidential campaigns but without seeing sufficient exposure, my hopes dwindled the closer we got to the election. I'm so pissed off at what his campaign people did. How did Gary Johnson, who was right on his opposition of the Patriot Act, right on his call to legalize marijuana, and right on his call to audit the FED-all the issues that drew me to the Libertarian point of view-have been so wrong in allowing Ron Nielson to steal $2Million of campaign money? All they had to show for it was two limited-run TV commercials close to election day. What a damned shame!

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Addie/Candice,

Part II of my comment above --

Or the attorneys involved in gaining ballot access in states where we were challenged. That was nothing. That was free (NOT).

Or the lawsuits against the CPD, State of Michigan, Oklahoma . . . those cost nothing?

Or the $180,000+ that was paid by the campaign (on top of the $350,000 or so paid by the LNC) to paid signature petitioners to get on the ballot in a bunch of other states. Something the state parties were not able to do with volunteers in those states. Just wasted money there? (meanwhile American's Elect spent $11 MILLION dollars for ballot access in 29 states over the past two years). But the LP and campaign just wasted that?

Sorry if I sound a bit upset here, but you conclusions are either uninformed, or slanderous.

Candice -- if that's your real name -- I worked my heart out for this campaign. I'm easy to find on the internet if you want to contact me directly. I received $5,000 to cover my expenses for working the convention in May, attending the Texas convention in June, Freedom Fest in July, Libertopia in October and managing over 150 requests for the Governor to endorse various issues and candidates. So only $1,995,000 of the above could have been "wasted" with every thing and everyone else working for free.

I realize some people would rather cast stones and tear things down than work with others to build something. I trust that's not you.

[DickNorris]

Gary Johnson got over a million votes. It was a good start. Having his campaign manager steal the donations was a bad start. Gary Johnson is a veteran and he doesn't give up. Look at his track record and you can't deny it. He must get his campaign fiscal house in order before we can expect him to get the country fixed. We all expected to hear the voice of liberty spoken loudly in the final days of the election and it was instead extinquished like a candle.

[HardyMacia]

He said all of that in the town hall last night, but also said he's going to stay relevant and is looking at a US Senate run in NM.. It's about winning and not protest votes. If he can raise 40 million to start a presidential run in 2016 then he's in for that too.

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Hardy,

Your comment above might cause some to think Gary discussed Ron stealing campaign money in the townhall.

Just want to post here that was NOT the case. Gary and Ron go back to the early 1990s together when Ron managed his two successful campaigns for Governor (and then several other successful campaigns for other candidates for the US House and other offices).

The comments above, I suspect, were posted under fake names by someone associated with the campaign who was frustrated in their attempt to take over running the show.

Maybe someone at Reason can check the IP addresses of the poster(s)?

[HardyMacia]

I was talking about Gary running for US Senate and Presidency. He said it in the town hall. Seems like Reason article only reported on half of what Johnson has said.

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This reminds me of Andre Marrou's classic explication of the etymology of the word "politics:"

"poli" from the same root as in polyester -- meaning "many kinds of artificial" and tics meaning "blood sucking creatures."

Roger Stone has a good article about "What Happened to Gary Johnson" at his http://stonezone.com/ website.

Personally, if I were Governor Johnson, I'd not run until $40 million had been raised first either. Given Romney and Obama each spent about a BILLION dollars, there's no sense in running for votes until you've run successfully for dollars first. And $40 million would be at the very low end of what's likely to be required 4 years from now.

Or so it sees to me.

[HardyMacia]

The 40 million is a low end. It would be seed money for the rest of the campaign with the goal of raising much more.