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SANTA FE - Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, uninvited to 11 of 13 televised debates, says his campaign for president is dying.
He described himself as underexposed and mistreated, and said he probably cannot continue in the race much longer.
"There are five debates prior to the New Hampshire primary (on Jan. 10). If I'm shut out of all five, I don't see that I stand a chance in New Hampshire," Johnson said Friday in a wide-ranging, 50-minute interview.
A two-term Republican governor from 1995 through 2002, Johnson said the party he stood for has let him down as much as media companies have. He said the Republican Party should have fought for his right to appear in televised debates, but did nothing.
"Anyone who looks at what has happened would say I've been treated unfairly," Johnson said. "... I think I've been hung out to dry by the Republican Party."
Johnson last week filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications Commission over his exclusion from a recent debate at Wofford College in South Carolina. CBS News and the National Journal sponsored the event.
Johnson said he had received no responses to his complaints. He said such silence was typical throughout his fight for inclusion on the biggest stages with millions of people watching the candidates on television.
Recent presidential debates have been good for former House Speaker New Gingrich, who has gained in polls, and bad for Texas Gov. Rick
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Perry, who promised to eliminate three government departments but could only remember two of them.
A poll Friday for the on-line New Hampshire Journal showed Gingrich at 27 percent in New Hampshire, 2 percentage points behind the region's favorite, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. The poll contained no mention of Johnson.
Even so, Johnson has fared a bit better than former Louisiana governor and congressman Buddy Roemer, who has been shut out of every debate. Roemer, Johnson and two other candidates recently appeared in a small-scale debate in New Hampshire, trying to generate interest in their candidacies.
Afterward, Roemer said he would support Johnson for president if he himself could not get the nomination. But Johnson's message, by his own admission, is going mostly unheard.
Johnson, 58, said he would stand out from the eight Republicans appearing in most debates if only voters had the chance to hear him. Johnson supports eliminating the Internal Revenue Service and all existing federal taxes. He would replace them with a 23 percent national consumption tax on retail sales.
As president, he said, he would submit a balanced budget in hopes of pressuring Congress to follow his leadership. He says he would veto all legislation in which expenses exceed revenues.
Johnson would cut the Department of Defense by 43 percent or back to the level it was when President George W. Bush took office. Johnson also wants to legalize marijuana, outlaw the death penalty and maintain abortion rights for women - positions at odds with those of the Republican frontrunners.
He spent much of last week in New York and Washington, giving interviews. This strategy, Johnson said, probably enables him to reach more voters in New Hampshire than if he wore out shoe leather campaigning before small groups.
Johnson said that, without a consistent presence in televised debates, voters throughout the country do not know who he is, much less what he stands for.
He said he had been "purposefully excluded" from debates in which he met the standard for inclusion.
Dating to May, Johnson said, CNN blocked him from a debate it sponsored in New Hampshire, even though he qualified under the benchmarks of being an announced candidate with 2 percent support in three national polls during the month.
At other points, Johnson said, he was even in polls with former restaurant executive Herman Cain and ahead of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. Johnson complained that they were included in debates but he was not.
To try to get noticed, Johnson resorted to posting video of himself answering questions posed at the debates.
As an observer of the competition, Johnson said, he was unimpressed with Cain, who said in one debate that he would defer to military advisers on what to do about Iraq and Afghanistan. Johnson said Cain arrived as a candidate without a thoughtful point of view.
Johnson is also tough on Gingrich, Romney and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Of Romney he says: "I can't tell you where he stands on any issues at all."
On Gingrich: "I don't think he talks in specifics."
Johnson says Paul may come closest to his own views on certain issues, such as drug legalization. But Johnson says Paul acts in ways that he never could.
"He sticks his earmarks (spending projects) in the budget, but then votes against it. I can't do that. I can't play that kind of game," Johnson said. In New Mexico, Johnson was more attuned to the power of his office than in building relationships with legislators.
Johnson acquired the nickname "Governor No" because he vetoed 742 bills during his eight years in office. He vetoed a record 200 bills in 1995 as a first-year governor.
Republican state Sen. Stuart Ingle of Portales said Johnson operated with unquestioned honesty.
"He gave his word, and he never changed it," Ingle said. "He made a stand on issues, and he never deviated, particularly on matters of finance." Johnson, though, said he was open to change, as when he became an opponent of the death penalty, which he says is a fundamentally flawed government policy.
"While governor, I changed my mind on capital punishment. I said send me a repeal bill, and I will sign it," Johnson said. "I am quite convinced that the government has put innocent people to death."
New Mexico outlawed capital punishment in 2009, seven years after Johnson left office.
He says his ideas and principles remain mostly unknown because he has not been a regular participant in the presidential debates.
If and when his presidential campaign ends, Johnson said, he will be done with politics. He said the same thing after his second term as governor and his decision to publicly endorse marijuana legalization so police and prosecutors could focus on serious crimes.
New Mexico will have an open U.S. Senate seat in 2012 with the retirement of Democrat Jeff Bingaman. But Johnson said he would not jump into that race if his presidential campaign ends.
"I'm not interested in the Senate," he said.
So, for perhaps a few more weeks, he will continue running for president, sending a message that he says could resonate if only he could get into the debates.
Santa Fe Bureau Chief Milan Simonich can be reached at msimonich@tnmnp.com or 505-820-6898. His blog is at nmcapitolreport.com.
Gary Johnson in January 2011.
Former New Mexico  and current Republican Party (GOP) presidential candidate  is reportedly considering a run for the  (LP) presidential nomination. Johnson feels "abandoned by the Republican Party", he told '''', due to his exclusion from nine of the eleven GOP debates and believes the LP would give him a fair shot at their nomination.

Johnson espouses  views including  legalization and defense budget cuts, which often run afoul of the GOP mainstream. Earlier this month, after filing suit with the  and  for his exclusion from the November 12  debate, he chastised the GOP establishment for failing to support him. The GOP agreed with the debate's inclusion criteria, which turned back candidates with less than three percent support in the '''' average and third quarter fundraising receipts below US$1 million. 

Johnson raised a little under US$240,000 in the third quarter and lately has not even been included in polls. He did appear in an August CNN poll, in which he led former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and former Utah governor . Despite their standing, both Santorum and Huntsman have been invited to every debate.

Johnson believes his exclusion was a "boardroom decision" to protect the GOP's "status quo." But Republican party attorney John R. Phillippe Jr. says that without a minimum standard, "the debates would be utter chaos and unhelpful to Republican voters".

If Johnson decides to leave the GOP and seek the LP nomination, it would not be the first time a member of the Republican Party did so. In 2008, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr ran and was selected as the LP nominee. In the general election, he garnered 0.4 percent of the popular vote.

For 2012, the LP has achieved ballot access in all 50 states, and currently has nine presidential candidates, including National Guard officer R.J. Harris and Libertarian activist .