"Next to the Zig Zag's, dude!
Posted on 08/16/2018 9:41:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said in seeking to make history and capture a U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico he'll have to give up a few of his favorite activities: marathon biking rides, hanging out in his northern New Mexico "dream" home and tuning out news about President Donald Trump.
But he can't promise he won't smoke an occasional joint.
Johnson, who served two terms as New Mexico governor in the 1990s and gained national attention as one of the first mainstream politicians to call for the legalization of marijuana, announced Thursday that he's seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich after the previous Libertarian nominee dropped out the race.
Johnson told reporters at his newly minted and empty Albuquerque headquarters that his candidacy was a longshot, but he felt he had no choice given Trump's unacceptable actions on immigration and free trade....
(Excerpt) Read more at sfchronicle.com ...
“I hope you realize he’s doing this on purpose to elect the Democrat.”
He is indeed.
Look at his veto history as Gov. He would do the same as a Rand Paul pain in the ass. Trump could handle him. The state is deep blue. No chance for a win unless the REPUBLICAN drops out. A Johnson win would get us closer to 60. Would the current incumbent vote for Kavanaugh? Grow up people.
Johnson is a real Aleppo.
He would caucus with the Rats, not with the Republicans. Just like Bernie Sanders.
Yep. Birds of a feather.
(and if folks can't pick up the heavy sarcasm, they ought not be posting to FR)
I disagree I think he hurts the Dem and helps the Republican. It’s two anti Trump candidates vs the R, who I assume won’t be stupid and run from Trump.
Not in this case. Rich is badly underfunded, a low end of the second tier candidates running for federal office, and has been stuck between 25-29% in the polls. He’s not going to magically move ahead of Heinrich. Heinrich is mediocre, to be sure, and doesn’t have 50% in the polls, but the Dem base in NM can still carry him even if he drops to the mid 40s. Johnson & Rich are seen as coming from the opposition (as opposed to Heinrich & Johnson) and will divide more than 50% of the vote, unfortunately.
Would Trump pull a Tark on Rich?
Are you suggesting Rich should withdraw and Republicans leave their spot on the ballot blank? Obviously Johnson is not going to withdraw, he just got in.
I don’t know the route to which we could conceivably win the seat. Although Heinrich, with both opponents remaining, likely wins with anywhere from 45% to even low 50s%, I think if either Rich or Johnson to withdraw in favor of the other, it still would be to the benefit of Heinrich, who would then likely move into the mid to high 50s%.
It’s frustrating we can’t find a way to merge the opposition into a single viable candidate. Alas, had Gov. Susana Martinez been a more successful and popular leader, she would be in the running. If both men withdrew in her favor, she’d still be lucky to get 45% to Heinrich’s 55%. Higher than either two, but not enough to win.
Former ABQ Mayor R.J. Berry might’ve been formidable for one of three offices (Gov/Sen/Rep for NM-1), but he also left office after two subpar terms and failure to curb the city’s crime problem and bolster the economy (his Dem predecessor and current successor have also similarly failed), and became obsessed with completing a ridiculously expensive and unpopular and unnecessary downtown streetcar line that the businesses effected by it didn’t even want. Not something you’d tend to expect from a Republican.
Heinrich himself is so dreadfully mediocre and probably has a majority negative popularity in NM, but would only win because his disapprovals aren’t as high as his opponents.
The three premier goals at the moment for the NM GOP is not displacing Heinrich, but keeping the Governorship, Pearce’s House seat and preventing any disastrous losses in the legislature.
FWIW, about three months ago I had a tour scheduled this September coming up with the Rio Grande (free market) Institute of several NM cities for a one-week period.
I got ahold of the NM Republican Party and asked if they’d like to have me speak to any of their groups, free, since I’m in town. No one ever got back to me, and I called two more times. My sense is NM Republicans are desperately in need of leadership-—on a lot of levels.
That’s too bad. I wonder if you’d have been better off contacting Pearce’s Gubernatorial campaign to have gotten a response.
That bastard Aubrey Dunn should have just run as a Republican.
” preventing any disastrous losses in the legislature.”
Only the House is up I believe. Taking it back should be the goal, not just avoiding losses.
Dunn should’ve run for reelection as Lands Commissioner. Fortunately, there is a top tier GOP candidate running, the prior holder of the office, Pat Lyons (he has never lost a race and he was the only Republican to win statewide office in 2002 and 2006).
I didn’t check to see if any Senate seats were up, you’re correct that they won’t be held again until 2020. The Dems are overrepresented in that body (and being up only in a Presidential year didn’t help - the GOP lost 3 seats and only flipped 1 Dem seat). The GOP holds 3 Hillary districts and the Dems hold 2 Trump districts in the Senate.
Due to some retirements and vulnerable seats, the Dems were supposedly due to make some gains in the House, though hopefully that doesn’t occur. Of the 70 seats, Trump won just 25 of them and Hillary took 45. Susana Martinez won 51 out of 70 in 2014.
As it stands, Republicans occupy 9 seats that Hillary won (4th, 15th, 20th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 53rd, 68th), and the GOP incumbents are retiring in the 15th and 30th. The incumbent in the 68th, Monica Youngblood, had a very public DUI, and she has chosen not to step aside. The Dems could conceivably pick up nearly all of them
Conversely, there are two Dem held seats (in rural areas, one in SW Deming and the other in east-central Fort Sumner, AKA “Billy the Kid” territory) that Trump won. The Dem lady in the 32nd (Deming area) barely held on in 2016. The Dem man in the 63rd was unopposed. The GOP is challenging both incumbents, though I imagine the resources will go to protecting the 7 incumbents in the Hillary districts.
If the GOP loses only three House seats overall, that will be a victory for them. If they hold them all, a “smashing” victory. If they actually make gains, that will be a landslide. They’d need a gain of 3 to tie. They lost 5 seats in 2016 (from 37 to 32).
Is this NM?
I’m doing a speaking tour there in September (Alb., Las Cruces, Roswell, Hobbes) on the 10-14th. Maybe that will help :)
Gary Johnson,is nothing more than a communist socialist globalist who’s masking himself as a libertarian who’s milking the movement for all its worth.
Yes. The seats in Albuquerque are the ones most at risk. Sadly, they’re the ones that drank the Hillary Kool-Aid.
for pissing and moaning purposes, he got 9.34% of the vote in the NM presidential race.
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