Former Republican Gov. Gary Johnson on Wednesday morning formally announced he will seek the Libertarian Party nomination for president of the United States. 

At a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda, Johnson, who has described himself as a lifelong Republican, announced he is leaving the GOP and signed a voter registration form declaring himself a Libertarian. 

Mark Hinkle, chairman of the national Libertarian Party, traveled from California to speak at Johnson's news conference. Officially Hinkle is neutral in the race, which has nine other declared candidates. But he noted that Johnson is the first two-term governor of any state to join the Libertarian Party. 

A spokeswoman for the state Republican Party said in an email Wednesday, "I do not anticipate us having any comment on Johnson's decision to run as a Libertarian."

A spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, said Martinez had no comment on Johnson. 

Hinkle said Johnson actually is coming back to the Libertarian Party. He had been a dues-paying member back when he was governor, Hinkle said. 

Johnson, who served as governor from 1995 through 2002, told reporters Wednesday that even though he liked President Reagan he voted in 1984 for the Libertarian candidate because of the size of the national debt incurred during Reagan's first term. 

Johnson said he supported Ron Paul for president in 2008 and still prefers Paul to the other current Republican presidential candidates. But he said, despite Paul's high poll numbers in Iowa, he doesn't expect Paul to be the GOP nominee. 

Asked about the differences between him and Paul, Johnson said, "I am not a social conservative." 

Johnson promised to seek to reduce federal spending by 43 percent to balance the national budget; to try to do away with all current federal taxes and replace them with a "fair tax" of 23 percent on all goods and services; to "reduce welfare and reduce warfare"; to fight for gun rights as well as gay rights; and to seek to legalize marijuana and change its classification as a "schedule one" drug under federal law. 

Johnson also said it should be easier for Mexican citizens who want to work in the U.S. to get work permits. 

Update 2:20 p.m.: The text was changed to include the "no comment" by the state Republican Party.

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This story originally ran in Wednesday's, December 28, 2011 Santa Fe New Mexican's print edition.

With former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson expected to announce Wednesday his bid for the Libertarian Party nomination for president, some wonder whether that could make Johnson a real contender for New Mexico's five electoral votes.

Johnson has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference Wednesday at the state Capitol, at which he is expected to announce he will drop his long-shot bid for the Republican nomination and run instead as a Libertarian.

Earlier this month, a Public Policy Polling survey of New Mexico voters showed Johnson taking more than 20 percent of the vote in the general election in a three-way race with Democrat Barack Obama and either Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich as the Republican nominee.

According to that poll, Johnson would take 26 percent to 30 percent of the Republican vote in New Mexico and win a plurality of the independent vote. Obama would win the state by 15 to 17 percentage points with or without Johnson in the race. (That is, if the election were held a couple of weeks ago, when the poll was taken.)

The state Republican Party recently lambasted PPP, which is a Democratic Party polling company, saying the company's polls have undercounted Republicans.

But even if the numbers are correct, this month's numbers for Johnson are likely to wilt by the general election in November, a political science professor from The University of New Mexico said Tuesday.

Lonna Atkeson said Johnson probably benefited from high name recognition in the recent poll. But, she said, many voters who flirt with the idea of voting for a third-party candidate early in the election process normally end up voting for major-party candidates. "They want their votes to count," Atkeson said.

She agreed with the PPP poll that Johnson would draw more votes from Republicans than Democrats. But by November, that number might not be big enough to be significant, she said.

The national Libertarian Party on Tuesday listed six presidential candidates who have filed statements of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, plus another three who have said they are running for president. Johnson probably is better known nationally than any of those listed.

The Libertarian Party historically has been handicapped by a lack of resources, Atkeson said. And that's not likely to change next year.

And Johnson, as a Libertarian, likely would face the same problem he faced while seeking the Republican nomination — being excluded from the televised debates. Not since the 1996 election, when Texas businessman Ross Perot ran on the Reform Party ticket, has a third party been included in a general election debate.

"The debates have been institutionalized, and it's hard for a third party to be included," Atkeson said.

As Johnson has pointed out, the Libertarian Party is expected to be on the general election ballots in all, or at least nearly all, of the states. In 2008, the party was on the ballot in 46 states, including New Mexico.

If Johnson becomes the Libertarian nominee, he surely would win far more votes in New Mexico than any previous Libertarian candidate.

According to numbers available on the Secretary of State's website, the most votes a Libertarian ever received in a presidential race here was in 1996, when candidate Harry Browne got 2,996 votes, far less than 1 percent of the total, in the general election. That was the year when Democratic President Bill Clinton was re-elected, beating Republican Bob Dole.

In the years since then, the Libertarian candidate normally receives more than 2,000 votes statewide. In 2008, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, a former congressman from Georgia, received 2,428 votes in New Mexico, out of 833,365 cast.

Nationally, the best year for a Libertarian candidate was 1980, when candidate Ed Clark received 1.1 percent of the national popular vote. However, in every other election, the party's standard bearer received less than 1 percent of the popular vote.

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