Q: The political cartoon Prickly City has been showing Gary Johnson as a presidential candidate in 2016. Is this a real person, and if he is, what can you tell me about him?
—Jenny Galoski, Hiram
A: Johnson, who was the governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, is the Libertarian candidate for president.
He also was the Libertarian candidate in 2012 and won nearly 1 percent of the popular vote.
Johnson, who is 63, was a Republican when he served as governor of New Mexico.
He is a fiscal conservative who would “sign legislation that will simplify our tax system, that will lower taxes,” he told foxbusiness.com in June. “If I could wave a magic wand, I would abolish income tax, corporate tax, the IRS and I would replace all of it with one federal consumption tax.”
Johnson is from North Dakota and graduated from the University of New Mexico.
He started Big J Enterprises, a construction company, in 1976, and built it into a multimillion-dollar company.
Johnson, who sold Big J in 1999, during his second term as governor, is running with former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.
He has gained in recent polls.
Johnson was at 13 percent according to a CNN/ORC International poll on July 17 and at 12 percent in a CBS/New York Times poll on July 14.
If Johnson reaches 15 percent, he will be able to participate in debates with fellow candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
About the Author
