NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR RESISTS DRAFT EFFORTS BY LIBERTARIANS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Embracing Gov. Gary E. Johnson's support of legalizing
drugs as a symbol of his political independence, a local group announced on
Wednesday that it was starting a campaign to draft him as the Libertarian
Party candidate for president.

That the New Mexico governor is an unwavering Republican who has already
rejected the overture, saying he has no interest, has not deterred the
group's efforts to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states in time for
next year's elections. Members of the group said papers would be filed with
the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday.

"We're hoping he'll change his mind," Ashley Gauthier, an Albuquerque
lawyer and Republican-turned-Libertarian, said at a news conference here,
where she and others praised Johnson for reducing taxes, promoting
alternatives in public education and challenging the Clinton administration
to abandon its current drug policies -- all favorite Libertarian positions.

"We think the governor would be a good candidate," she added. "Maybe he
just doesn't realize how much the public supports him."

Bill Winter, a spokesman for the Libertarian Party, which is based in
Washington, said: "The national office has to remain neutral, but we
understand the benefits of a high elected official running for president.
He would bring the party credibility it has not had before."

While Reform Party candidates have enjoyed moderate success in recent
years, including the election of Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota
last November, no Libertarian has ever made much of an impact at state or
national levels. The party has run candidates for president since 1972, but
with negligible effect. Ed Clark, a California lawyer, made the best
showing when he won 921,199 votes in 1980. Ronald Reagan, in a landslide
victory over president Jimmy Carter, won 43.8 million votes that year to
Carter's 35.4 million.

Ross Perot, the leading alternative candidate in the last two presidential
elections, carried the Reform banner and finished a distant third, winning
19.7 million votes in 1992 and 8 million four years later. The Libertarian
candidate each year was well behind that.

Johnson, a 46-year-old triathlete who has acknowledged using drugs in his
youth, has insisted that his political life will end when his second term
expires in 2002. A former businessman who never held public office before
he was first elected in 1994, he says he wants to climb mountains, not seek
another office.

But even by turning down the offer to run for president, the governor has
elevated the Libertarian profile through his campaign to change tactics in
fighting drugs by legalizing them, a strategy that Libertarians have
embraced for years. Speaking forcefully on the issue for the last two
months, Johnson made his case again Wednesday in a speech at the Cato
Institute, a research organization in Washington.

More generally, Libertarians favor shrinking the size and cost of
government and eliminating regulations that restrict free trade and
personal choices. More members of the party tend to be former Republicans
than former Democrats, and the party says it now has active organizations
in all 50 states and more than 300 party members serving in elected
positions in 36 states.

"I do consider it very flattering," Johnson said by telephone before his
speech, referring to the draft movement. "But I'm a Republican, and I'm not
going to run for president."

If third-party candidates remain little more than outlets for the
disenfranchised and frustrated at the national level, they have attained
more serious status, especially the Green Party, here in New Mexico.
Johnson owes his political ascension in part to the success of a Green
candidate, Roberto Mondragon, in 1994. Mondragon, a former Democrat, won 10
percent of the votes, enabling Johnson to defeat the incumbent governor,
Bruce King, a Democrat, by 50 percent to 40 percent.

Rep. Heather A. Wilson, a freshman Republican from Albuquerque, also won
because of a Green Party candidate. Last year she defeated Phillip J.
Maloof, a Democrat, by six percentage points while the Green candidate,
Robert L. Anderson, won 10 percent of the vote.

Six Greens hold public office in New Mexico, including City Council members
in Sante Fe and Silver City.

"The Greens got their biggest boost ever in 1994," said F. Chris Garcia, a
political scientist at the University of New Mexico. "That was their
biggest splash, and the ripples continue to roll across New Mexico. It gave
people the idea, 'We can do something,' although in almost all cases they
have kept Democrats from winning."

Whether Johnson runs under the Libertarian banner or not, the party plans
to choose its presidential nominee at a convention next summer in Anaheim,
Calif.

Here in New Mexico, Libertarians are busy registering voters. They need
about 1,000 more to qualify as a major state party, which would guarantee
that Libertarian candidates would be listed on state and local ballots.