Johnson-Gray 2012
May 6, 2012The Libertarian Party picked its candidates for President and VP yesterday at its convention in Las Vega. They’re former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico and former Judge Jim Gray of California.
There are press releases at the LP’s site, of course, but I got the news (and the photo above) from Reason’s Hit & Run, where they’ve been following the LP convention all weekend.
Gov. Johnson started this year’s race running for the Republican nomination before switching to run for the Libertarian nomination. I still don’t understand why Johnson was excluded from the televised Republican debates. Johnson has a pretty impressive record from his two terms as governor of New Mexico, when he earned the nickname ‘Governor Veto’.
So why wasn’t Johnson in the debates? Was his record as a governor somehow less legitimate than Herman Cain’s record as a businessman? Right.
Here’s a campaign ad Johnson published last fall.
Judge Gray is a well-known critic of the Drug War and I’ve mentioned him earlier. He wrote a book about the War on Drugs in 2001. He ran as the Libertarian candidate for US Senate against Barbara Boxer in 2004.
The LP press release about Gray’s nomination claims that he’s ‘the chief proponent of a California ballot initiative called “Regulate Marijuana Like Wine“‘. Here’s his ‘elevator speech’ on that topic.
I think this pair is a good choice for the Libertarians, even though Johnson is (in some senses) a renegade from the Republican party. It gives those looking to avoid the Coke or the Pepsi party a reasonable alternative.
No Truce With Kings 
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