Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson knows he's not going to win the New Hampshire presidential primary and that he won't be the 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

But in an interview Wednesday, he said he's seriously considering running for the Libertarian Party nomination for president.

"I feel abandoned by the Republican Party," Johnson said in a phone interview. "The Republican Party has left me by the wayside."

He's been left out of all but two of the seemingly endless Republican presidential debates. His fundraising is low and his poll numbers are below radar level.

"If I'd have been included in 16 of the last debates we wouldn't even be having this conversation," Johnson said.

Johnson said there have been "overtures made" by the Libertarian Party. While there's no guarantee he'd win the nomination, Johnson believes he'd have a fair chance.

The Libertarian Party is on the ballot in all 50 states, Johnson said. However, he noted the party's presidential nominee has never received more than 1 percent of the vote nationally.

The Libertarian Party's website lists nine people who have declared they are running for president as Libertarians. Johnson isn't on that list.

On Tuesday, Johnson received a reply from the Republican National Committee to his request for help in getting included in televised GOP debates, or at least to insist that polling organizations include his name.

The party's reply probably wasn't unexpected. But it didn't say anything to give Johnson much hope.

The letter, written by the national party's chief counsel, John R. Phillippe Jr., pointed out that there are 21 Republican hopefuls who have filed in the New Hampshire primary. "We simply have to have some minimum criteria in order for candidates to participate in these debates," Phillippe wrote. "Otherwise, the debates would be utter chaos and unhelpful to Republican voters as we select our nominee."

Phillippe said the threshold for getting into party-sanctioned debates is $1 million in third-quarter fundraising or having an average of 3 percent in polls as averaged by the Real Clear Politics website.

In early polls, Johnson's percentages were in the low single digits. In late August, a CNN poll showed Johnson ahead of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and tied with businessman Herman Cain. Huntsman, Santorum and Cain have been invited to all the debates. However, since that time, CNN's polls haven't included Johnson — which is the case with other polling organizations in recent weeks.

It's hard to get good poll numbers if your name isn't on the poll, Johnson pointed out.

He'd asked the party to "exert some leadership and reclaim the nominating process from the national news media who are today pre-ordaining the viability and success of candidates."

As for money, Johnson's most recent campaign finance report, filed in October with the Federal Election Commission, showed he had less than $11,000 cash on hand.

Johnson acknowledged that he wasn't likely to win the nomination without getting included in the remaining primary debates — and said he's painfully aware that he isn't likely to be included in those debates.

He contrasted the attitude of the national Republicans with that of the New Mexico GOP in 1994, when he was an unknown who seemed to come from nowhere before winning the party's nomination for governor. "The New Mexico Republican Party was very inclusive," he said.

As for the National Republican Party, he said, "They certainly don't want anything to do with ideas. Only protecting the status quo." Excluding him, Johnson said, "was a boardroom decision somewhere."

Slate online magazine reporter Dave Weigel on Wednesday expressed sympathy for Johnson's plight.

"The rules that allowed no-hopers like Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore and Tom Tancredo into the 2007 debates would have let Johnson and [former Louisiana Gov.] Buddy Roemer in," Weigel wrote Wednesday. "So we're spared the presence of governors who last won elections in 1989 and 1998, and gifted with a senator who last won election in 2000 and a businessman who has never won anything."

Even Comedy Central's political satire website Indecision weighed in on the Republican National Committee's response: "Whoa, settle down there Gary! Are you seriously suggesting that the RNC would allow certain voices within their party to be silenced by massive, wealthy media conglomerates?"

This is the second presidential election in a row in which a New Mexico governor was a candidate. Four years ago about this time, Gov. Bill Richardson was struggling to get noticed in what was developing into a Democratic primary showdown between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He dropped out in early January 2008 after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.

However, unlike Johnson, Richardson was included in all the debates.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com