Gary Johnson will formally announce his candidacy for president on April 21 in New Hampshire, an aide told POLITICO.One possible tweak to Johnson's roll-out plan:
The former New Mexico governor will skip creating an exploratory committee — the traditional path of many of his potential GOP rivals — to immediately start campaigning and fundraising in the first-in-nation primary state.
Johnson’s campaign headquarters will be based in Salt Lake City, home to his longtime adviser Ron Nielson, who worked on his two successful campaigns for New Mexico governor.
Aides are still hammering out the details of when and where Johnson will announce his candidacy.
And there is a small possibility that his announcement could be moved to April 20, an unofficial holiday for the marijuana legalization movement. Johnson, a leading advocate of legalization, is already planning to speak at a New Hampshire so-called 4/20 rally.
An intentional 4/20 presidential announcement just oozes credibility and seriousness, doesn't it? Along with his pro-legalization platform, Johnson, a stylized Republican/Libertarian, favors gay marriage, is pro-abortion rights, and has denounced Arizona's immigration enforcement law as encouraging "racial profiling." His views on foreign policy are also off the Republican beaten path.
Could he split the Ron Paul vote? These early primary debates (the first of which has just been postponed) are going to get interesting.