Johnson weighing run for Senate
Dunn’s plans to withdraw leave Libertarian opening
New Mexicans could see former Gov. Gary Johnson’s name on a ballot yet again.
The ex-presidential candidate is considering jumping into the race for U.S. Senate as Libertarian nominee Aubrey Dunn plans to drop out.
The maneuvers threaten to upend a race in which Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich has maintained a 20-to-1 fundraising advantage as he runs for a second term while Republican Mick Rich lags in cash, facing the obstacles that come with being a political newcomer in a statewide election.
For his part, Johnson would bring name recognition, a long list of prospective donors and crossover appeal. At the very least, he would inject color and national attention to a race that so far has gone about as quietly as a school board election.
Some prominent Republicans question whether there is any path to victory for either Rich or Johnson if both stay in the race, potentially setting up a showdown over who would be best positioned to unseat Heinrich.
Ron Nielson, a longtime consultant to Johnson, said the former governor is seriously considering running but has not yet decided.
“He’s not going into the race unless he thinks he can win,” Nielson said.
Either way, the Libertarians are ready for him.
Dunn, the state’s commissioner of public lands who switched parties from Republican to Libertarian earlier this year and cinched the party’s nominee for Senate unopposed, confirmed Friday he will drop out of the race next week and in turn leave a spot open on the ballot.
State Libertarian Party Chairman Chris Luchini said he had not spoken to Johnson about a potential run but added
the group had seen a spike in fundraising since rumors about the former governor’s prospective campaign began circulating.
Rich’s campaign said the Albuquerque contractor is not dropping out.
Still, Johnson would threaten to take a slice out of his base.
Johnson, a Taos resident, won about 9 percent of the vote in New Mexico when he ran for president in 2016 and picked up endorsements from some Republicans disillusioned with then-nominee Donald Trump.
He had his share of gaffes. But particularly for younger voters who may not recall his terms from 1995 to the end of 2002 as governor of New Mexico, the national campaign allowed him to craft a public image as an inon-the-jokes politician and darling of late-night talk shows who climbs mountains, supports legalizing marijuana and also takes a fiscally conservative approach to government.
Johnson, who was a Republican when he was governor, said last year that he would not run for president again (he ran for the GOP nomination in 2012, too). But a question mark remained over his political future.
Two people familiar with the numbers said Friday that one recent poll already shows Johnson in the low 30s in the race for Senate.
Getting Johnson on the ticket would likely be a boon for Libertarians heading into their first election as a major political party in New Mexico.
So far, Democrats have shown little concern about Heinrich’s opposition, and the nonpartisan newsletter Inside Elections lists his seat as solidly Democratic.
Many in the party are expecting a backlash against Trump to drive voters to the polls. Heinrich is positioned to run as a bulwark against the president’s agenda, knocking him on issues from the Affordable Care Act to immigration to public lands.
Meanwhile, a potentially historic congressional race in Albuquerque could help turn out Democratic voters, and major Republican donors do not appear to be piling money on to Rich quite yet (his campaign had about $200,000 in the bank at the end of June). Meanwhile, Heinrich’s campaign has nearly $4 million on hand. And he is launching TV ads next week.
“We’re not worried about New Mexico,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in May when asked about the outlook for Democrats holding the seat, describing the Land of Enchantment as “trending from purple to even blue.”