Gary Johnson switches parties in run for president

SANTA FE - 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 on Wednesday.

Johnson, who turns 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 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 campaign 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, 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.

But outside of New Mexico, Johnson remains a candidate who is largely unknown.

He supports a 23 percent national consumption tax on retail sales. If it were enacted, 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.

Johnson stood apart from many in the Republican Party on an array of issues.

He wants to legalize marijuana and outlaw the death penalty. He supports gay marriage and wants to maintain abortion rights for women.

Johnson did not reveal his position for marijuana legalization until after he had won his second term as governor in 1998.

Upon leaving the governor's office at the end of 2002, he said he had no further political aspirations. But after nine years in private life, he re-emerged as a presidential candidate.

Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or 505-820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.

Source: http://www.ruidosonews.com/ci_19625537?source=rss_viewed

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