ABOUT
Gary Johnson is running for President as a Libertarian party candidate
Johnson, former governor of New Mexixo, was also co-founder/owner of Big J Enterprises, a one-person, fix-it business that grew to become one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico with 1,000 employees.
ELECTIVE OFFICE
Governor of New Mexico, 1994-2002
FUNDRAISING
By the most recent June 30 reporting date, Johnson had raised $180,237.
SOURCES
The Albuquerque Journal, OurAmericaInitiative.com, Salon.com
VITAL STATISTICS
Date of Birth: January 1, 1953
Education:Bachelor's degree in political science, 1975, University of New Mexico
Family:Johnson has one daughter, Seah, and one son, Erik, from his marriage to Dee Simms. They divorced in 2006.
Official Web Site: www.garyjohnson2012.com
TALKING POINTS...
As a two-term governor of New Mexico, he showed a Libertarian streak and emphasized a business approach to governing. A term-limits law prohibited him from seeking re-election.
Johnson takes credit for cutting the rate of growth of state government, privatizing half of state prisons and shifting state Medicaid to managed care.
He said he can fix what he calls America's bankrupt status by asking two questions: What are we spending our money on? What are we getting in return?
Some of his policy positions are far from conventional for a Republican presidential nominee: While he doesn't smoke marijuana, he believes it should be legal. Arguably 75 percent of border violence with Mexican drug cartels is marijuana-related, he said. Johnson believes women have the right to choose an abortion "up until the viability of the fetus." He said he opposed the Iraq war from the start, and though he initially supported the war in Afghanistan, he no longer believes U.S. troops should be there. He has said he would not have signed the Arizona immigration law because he's concerned it could lead to racial profiling.
Johnson was raised Lutheran and says he's tried to live according to Christian principles, but he's not a church-going Republican. "I don't think you'll ever hear me invoking God in anything I do," he told Salon.