The Libertarian National Committee is meeting in Arlington, Virginia, November 17-18. IndependentPoliticalReport has been covering that meeting. See here, and then scroll down to comments #88 and #96, in which participants at the meeting commented that Ron Nielson, Gary Johnson’s campaign manager, says Johnson is interested in the Libertarian presidential nomination in 2016.
Wise choice. Johnson will build momentum from 2012 and carry it over to 2016. w00t.
Outstanding! Of course, we’ll have to see how events play out over the next four years.
I had mixed feelings when Harry Browne decided to seek the LP Presidential Nomination again in 2000. I liked our tradition of always having a new LP Presidential Candidate each time since the message is really far more important than the messenger in my opinion. (One of the uncomfortable feelings I had watching the Ron Paul Rally this past Summer was just how much his movement has developed into a “personality cult” and I say that with all due respect for Dr. Paul, who I voted for in the general election in 1988 and in the Republican Primaries in Illinois in 2008 and 2012.)
But I believe Governor Johnson really only had a partial run for President this year, at least as far as being the LP Candidate. So, it would be great to have him give it another go in 2016, assuming there is an election.
Fantastic! I hope to be a delegate at the 2016 convention, and would love to vote for Gov. Johnson as our nominee!
Johnson’s campaign was a failure. I don’t really understand why he would want to do it again, or why others would want to help him. Naturally, everyone’s free to choose to do that, and I hope they do their best and have fun.
Personally, I will definitely not vote Republican or Democrat in 2016, but I don’t care whether the person I vote for is on the ballot or not. What would be a good thing would be a national clearinghouse (i.e. an informational website) for write-in candidates, so those who wish to cast a protest vote can do so without the candidates needing to take on the expense of getting on the ballot.
More votes than any other Libertarian presidential candidate in history is a failure? I call b.s.
I disagree with Otto Kerner. Johnson had to start late and that made things more difficult in terms of fundraising to be able to run adds and in terms of getting onto the ballot in OK and MI.
I think if he starts early this time that he will be able to make it onto the ballot in all 50 states and will be able to raise enough money to at least run a few radio ads.
I voted for Johnson this time even though I’m a Republican and I’m very open to voting for him next time if the GOP nominee is a radical social conservative again. I’m not sure I’m willing to vote Libertarian if there is someone who has even less experience or following than Johnson. Does anyone really think that someone other than Governor Johnson could have done as well as he did as the LP nominee this year? It was too close of an election for people to feel comfortable voting third party.
And I might also add that I know of four Democrats who voted for Johnson because of his clearly expressed views on marijuana and same-sex marriage. I think other Libertarians who don’t emphasize drug issues or other social issues and instead just emphasize foreign policy and economic issues only draw votes from the Republican nominee and not much from the other direction. Johnson has a unique ability to pull from both sides. Does anyone think there were anywhere near as many Democrats who voted for Bob Barr?
We have to do our part in getting ballot access for the remaining states. Harry spent so much money just getting access, that there wasn’t much money left over for media. Do we have a plan for access, that can help solve some of these problems in 2014.
IF the minor party so-called leaders had ANY brains, they would do Democracy constitutional amendment petitions in the 18 States having DCAP — starting with Nevada.
BUT, they have NO brains – so the ballot access zoo circus continues each 2 or 4 year cycle.
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P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
#8, the answer to ballot access problems, for this period, is to lobby state legislatures for better laws.
6 –
The GOP nominee was a “radical social conservative?”
Baw-hahhhhhhhhhh!
If this is the kind of “thinker” the L party attracts…lotsa luck, boys and girls.
Otto, in what sense was Governor Johnson’s campaign a failure? Personally, I look at voting as a “signaling” process of the way that you want public policy to go. That’s why the “wasted vote” idea has things exactly backwards — the more you vote for candidates who have no real differentiable positions, the less likely the system understands what you want. Democratic politics is a crude process for choice determination in comparison to market economics, but it helps to at least learn how to use it.
And as Jed said above, Johnson/Gray received more votes than any Libertarian Party presidential candidate in our history — more than twice as many as Bob Barr did four years ago and about three times as many as Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party did this year, who took fourth place.
Governor Johnson received more votes than all the other alternative party candidates combined in 2012.
Join the 2016 victory club. Start a savings acct and put in 5,10,or 25 dollars every month. If you put in 25 dollars a month by the convention in 2016 you will have $1000 to donate to the campaign. If we could get 1000 people to commit to this we could start with $1,000,000 on day one. GET IT
I wonder how Rand Paul’s possible entry will affect the 2016 elections. If he wins the nomination, I believe that it would hurt Johnson’s chances of improving his numbers.
http://www.kentucky.com/2012/11/20/2415603/kentuckys-rand-paul-hints-at-presidential.html
His goal was to get 5% of the vote. http://tucsoncitizen.com/hispanic-politico/files/2012/11/gary-johnson-5-percent-tweet.jpg
I was excited by that prospect, and so were some other people. He would have been able to make a much stronger case to be included in the debates in 2016. However, he got much less than that, and much closer to the Libertarian presidential average, which is very poor. He got under 1%, while attracting little media attention and having very little effect on the national political discourse. He didn’t even get 5% in his home state. That’s a failure.
I voted for Johnson and I don’t regret it. I’m proud of that vote. I never considered voting for Obama or Romney, and Johnson was the best candidate I was aware of. I just think that all the effort and money that went into getting ballot access and “campaigning” was unnecessary. I would have been just as happy to write his name in.
@14 YES! Spread this message and shout it from the rooftops! We need people to do this now! 🙂
#16, we don’t know yet if Gary Johnson got 1% of the vote. There are still millions of uncounted ballots. We won’t know the final figures until mid-December at the earliest.
4 years ago… i bit my tongue and voted for the Libertarian Candidate for president.
This Year, I and at least 6 other friends who either had not voted previously or had voted for other parties candidate joined me and voted for the Libertarian party.
2 people that I talked to after the election didn’t know who Gary Johnson was but i am pretty sure that if they had they might have joined us.
Word of mouth is a powerful way of advertising.
I had a personal victory this election even if my candidate didn’t.
If Gary indicates he is likely to run again, I will make sizable donations to his pac in the run up to his actual announcement.
Gary has stated he doesn’t want to waste anyone’s money.
I think my money wasn’t wasted this time.
Does Gary Johnson work for a state university, like many libertarians? Murray Rothbard did and the NJ candidate for governor in 1997.