PRESS RELEASES AND EMAILS from Gary Johnson 2012
Contact:  Sue Winchester

GARY JOHNSON: MISSING VOICE IN NH DEBATE

June 3, 2011, Santa Fe, NM - Republican presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson released the following statement today in reaction to not being invited to participate in the June 13 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary debate:

“I respect the right of CNN and the other sponsors of the June 13 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary debate to apply their own criteria and invite who they choose.  It is, however, unfortunate that a significant segment of the Republican Party, and more importantly, millions of independent voters who might be Republican voters, will not have a voice on the stage in Manchester.

What will be missing is the voice of those who hold an undiluted view of individual liberty – those who believe that individual rights extend to women who face choices about abortion,  Americans who happen to be gay, and those who don’t place other asterisks on freedom.

Likewise, there will be no voice for the growing number of Americans who see the hypocrisy and failure of drug laws that condone alcohol at White House Dinners while incarcerating millions of Americans, including our kids, who choose to smoke pot.

I wish the participants in the debate well.  And I sympathize with the millions of Americans whose beliefs will not be on display in Manchester on June 13.

I look forward to participating in the July 10 debate in Las Vegas, sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform and the Daily Caller."


June 4, 2011
Liberty is being excluded

Thank you for your outpouring of support after yesterday’s news that CNN, WMUR, and the New Hampshire Union Leader decided to exclude Governor Gary Johnson from their June 13th GOP primary debate. Your response has been nothing short of inspiring.

This decision by CNN, WMUR, and the Union Leader ensures that the beliefs of millions of Americans will not be on display in Manchester on June 13. This is unacceptable. As Governor Johnson stated yesterday, “what will be missing is the voice of those who hold an undiluted view of individual liberty.”

Since my last email, we have learned more about the supposedly “objective criteria” used to determine the debate participants. CNN has stated that “participants had three different opportunities to be eligible to take part in the debate.”

While the media outlet may claim to be giving all candidates an equal opportunity to participate in the debate, this is simply not true. CNN itself didn't even include Governor Johnson in any of their own polling prior to May 24th. Governor Johnson was not listed as a choice in CNN’s April 9-10, 2011 and April 29-May 1, 2011 polls, effectively denying him the same opportunity as others to participate. This occurred despite Governor Johnson having already filed as a presidential candidate prior to their second poll.

As someone who owns a polling firm and has worked as a pollster for a living, I can tell you that early polling reflects pre-existing name recognition and little else. It is inappropriate to use polls as a means of exclusion this early in the nominating process. To speak of differences between a candidate with 3% and one with 2.5% is meaningless, because the polls CNN cites simply are not that accurate.

Our campaign office, however, had not received an invitation, so we called this week, thinking we might have misplaced it or simply overlooked it. To our shock, at about 6:30 this morning, we learned that Governor Johnson was not invited, he was not going to be invited, and he would not be allowed to participate.

Most polls have a margin of error of about 4%, which makes it impossible to distinguish between small differences in level of support. What is clear is that Governor Johnson has a similar level of support as Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman, both of whom were extended invitations to participate.

Meanwhile, the Union Leader filed this report yesterday evening about the ‘first-in-the-nation presidential cruise on Lake Winnipesauke: “Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson gets biggest applause of the night so far when he says the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished. He said the federal bureaucracy is blocking quality education and choice, like school vouchers. Johnson, to about 400 Republicans on board the Mount Washington for the first-in-the-nation cruise, said America should pull troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stop intervening in Libya.”

It is clear that Governor Johnson should not be excluded from this early primary debate. Not surprisingly, CNN feels differently. Please help us keep up the pressure on the debate sponsors:

CNN
(404) 827-1500 or (202) 898-7900
Text: CNN (space) and your news tip to 772937 (don't forget the space after CNN). http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html
Twitter: @CNN or @teamCNN

WMUR
http://www.wmur.com/contact/index.html
(603) 669-9999
Twitter: @WMUR9

Union Leader
publisher@unionleader.com
http://www.unionleader.com/tip
(603) 668-4321 Twitter: @unionleader

Please take that action. With Twitter, use hashtag #GJ2012 or #GJinNH.

Encourage your friends and acquaintances to subscribe to our campaign updates. They can do so easily by visiting Governor Johnson’s homepage at: www.GaryJohnson2012.com.

Help us continue to fight for your voice on the national stage. Your financial support is vital: donate.GaryJohnson2012.com.

The battle has been joined.

Ron Nielson
Chief Campaign Strategist
Gary Johnson 2012


Contact:  Sue Winchester
JOHNSON CAMPAIGN: DEBATE SPONSORS PICKING WINNERS
 
June 4, 2011, Santa Fe, NM - A senior advisor to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign said Saturday that Governor Johnson’s exclusion from a June 13 New Hampshire primary debate is “unacceptable” and the result of criteria that “picks winners and losers” seven months before the first presidential primary votes are cast.  In a statement, the advisor, Ron Nielson, said:
 
“Since it was announced that Governor Gary Johnson has been excluded from the June 13 Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire, we have heard from people all across the county who are either bewildered, angry – or both, by the debate sponsors’ decision.
 
“As Governor Johnson has said, his exclusion denies a voice at the debate for a substantial slice of the Republican Party, those who share his undiluted view of personal liberty and real fiscal restraint.
 
“While we have had no specific explanation from the debate sponsors, it appears that Gary Johnson’s exclusion was based on some mysterious polling arithmetic.  Whatever that arithmetic was, the differences that excluded us while producing invitations for several other less-known candidates would certainly fall within the margin of error of any poll.  CNN didn’t even include Governor Johnson in some of their own April polls, yet we suspect they used those polls in their math.  That makes no sense whatsoever.
 
“More importantly, at this early stage of the campaign, it is a simple reality that polling numbers are almost entirely a product of name ID, money, and decisions by the media, including the debate sponsors, to cover some candidates more than others.   That a successful two-term governor with an unmatched record for cutting spending and advocating real freedom who is a declared candidate for president is barred from a critical debate on the basis of fractions of percentage points seven months before the first votes are cast is unacceptable.
 
“If we are going to focus on polls, we should be looking at the ones showing that many, many Republican and potential Republican primary voters are not satisfied with the field of candidates.  That won’t change if those voters are denied the opportunity to see who and what their options really are – the opportunity a debate is supposed to provide.   By excluding a candidate like Gary Johnson with polling that is largely irrelevant at this stage, the debate sponsors are doing just the opposite – they are picking winners and losers seven months before the election.”



Contact:  Sue Winchester
JOHNSON CAMPAIGN PROTESTS CNN DEBATE EXCLUSION

June 6, 2011, Santa Fe, NM - A senior advisor to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign, Ron Nielson, today sent the following letter to CNN concerning Governor Johnson’s exclusion from the June 13 New Hampshire primary debate:

“The Gary Johnson for President campaign has been overwhelmed over the weekend with phone calls and emails all asking the same question: How is it that Governor Johnson is being excluded from the June 13 New Hampshire presidential primary debate?  Of course, they are asking the wrong people.


“Having heard nothing to the contrary from you, the debate sponsors, we assume the decision not to invite Governor Johnson was based upon your “objective” polling criteria.  Certainly, you have to apply criteria.  We get that.  However, the idea that inclusion – or exclusion – from a critical debate in a critical state will be based entirely upon polling arithmetic, seven months before a single vote is cast, is not only absurd, but counter-intuitive to the very purpose of a debate.

“At this point in the process, a candidate’s ranking in the polls is almost entirely a factor of name identification, news coverage by outlets such as yours, money, and/or previous exposure on the national level – including that gained from previous unsuccessful campaigns. In short, relying solely on polling numbers at this stage simply grants an enormous advantage to “establishment” candidates – and excludes a successful two-term governor whose express purpose in running is to give Americans an alternative to business as usual, and who actually has a track record to back it up.

“Given that poll rankings at this point are largely the result of decisions by the elite media, such as CNN, about who and what to cover – and to whom to give precious air time, it is more than a little ironic when those same media use those poll numbers to deem certain  candidates deserving and others not.  That irony is not lost on Republican primary voters who most assuredly do not want media elites pre-selecting  their candidates for them.

“Consider:  In early 1991, then-Governor Bill Clinton was in 11th place in presidential primary polling with 2%.  By November of 1991, he was only at 6%,  a fact which led one commentator to later observe:  “If the front runners in the 1992 Democratic primary had been successful in excluding all the "non-serious" candidates, Bill and Hillary Clinton would have never made it to the national stage.” The “frontrunners” in 1991, by the way, were Mario Cuomo and Jerry Brown.

“And there is this excerpt from a memorandum sent to supporters by the Mitt Romney campaign in 2007: “Carter, Dukakis, and Clinton were all governors of small states who began their campaigns with low national exposure and went on to win their party’s nomination. At this point in 1975, Carter was polling at 1%; in 1987, Dukakis was polling at 1%; in 1991, Clinton was at 2%.”

“In short, applying your criteria, the ultimate nominees in several modern elections would likely not have been invited to a CNN debate.  And in each case, they were Governors of relatively small states who simply had not enjoyed the advantage of the national media’s attention – a rather precise description of Governor Johnson.  The polls were not predictive then, and they are not now.

“The fundamental unfairness of relying solely on polling criteria aside, there are obvious problems with the polling criteria themselves.  Even the most extensive and professional political polls carry margins of error from 3-5%.  When reporting polls in which candidates are separated by margins within that range, the news media invariably points out that those candidates are essentially tied or the race is “too close to call”.  While we have not seen your precise calculations, based on the polls we have seen, we have to assume that the “margin” between Governor Johnson and some of those who were invited to the debate were equally “too close to call”.  Yet you made a call – and decided to exclude Governor Johnson.

“Adding to the mystery of your arithmetic is the simple fact that Governor Johnson was not even included in much of CNN’s own polling during the month of April – one of the time periods you used to determine eligibility.  It is hardly surprising that a candidate would not fare well in a poll in which he was not included.

“Debates play an important role in the American political process.  They uniquely provide an opportunity for voters to hear, see, contrast and compare candidates – on a level playing field uncluttered by funding, name I.D., past notoriety and public relations machines.  Rather, they are about credentials, ideas, philosophies and policies.

“By those measures, a two-term Republican governor from a Democrat state -- who turned a deficit into a surplus, vetoed 750 bills, and successfully governed from a philosophy many, many Republicans are today seeking – deserves a chance to participate in the June 13 debate.  Early and largely irrelevant polling arithmetic certainly should not trump the obvious:  Gary Johnson has a record, a resume and the proven accomplishments to merit inclusion among any serious gathering of Republican candidates for president.

“We respectfully ask that the decision to exclude Governor Johnson be revisited, and that the American people be given an opportunity to hear a voice on June 13 that otherwise will not be heard.

Sincerely,

Ron Nielson
Senior Advisor
Gary Johnson 2012”