The Libertarian Party of New Mexico met with former Libertarian presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson Saturday to hash out strategy and get some real world perspective on what it’s like running for office.

TRIS DeROMA/Monitor Former Gov. Gary Johnson spoke to the Libertarian Party candidates at a retreat in Santa Fe Saturday. Buy this photo TRIS DeROMA/Monitor The Libertarian Party of New Mexico met Saturday to discuss campaign strategy. Buy this photo

“Gary’s perspective is that of someone who has actually run. It’s unique. He also has a lot of experience in government, fundraising and politics”, New Mexico Libertarian Party Chair Chris Luchini, of Los Alamos, said. “Most of our candidates don’t have experience as elected officials or candidates.”

Luchini is running for Los Alamos County Sheriff.

Johnson said Saturday that judging from his own experiences, the candidates had a fight on their hands when it comes to going up against the Democrats and Republicans.

Johnson was a guest of the first Libertarian Party Retreat, which was held at The Lodge in Santa Fe.

He told those gathered that their races were not going to be pretty, especially if they were running a statewide race or for Congress.

Johnson, who was a presidential candidate in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, said it was tough competing with candidates that had more money and could afford to hire consultants skilled at manipulating what people see on the internet.

Johnson related how the day after a New York Times article came out about his gains in the millennial vote during the 2016 election, 200 of what he called internet trolls flooded the search engines with views that favored Hillary Clinton as a millennial voter favorite.

“Two hundred entities showed up… that was a paid advertisement thing,” Johnson said. “What pops up first, what pops us second… If you take the top 20 of what popped up, new sites you haven’t seen before, your take away of reading three or four of them, because that’s all any of us ever read… if you read all 20 of them your take away was this was the dumbest guy that ever walked the planet.

“I think that this is something that all of you will face also if you’re in a statewide race,” he said. “… It’s not going to take but 10 or 15 of these kinds of these people if they’re dogging you everyday, it’s hard to overcome.”

“Hopefully this will be a recurring theme on every election year, as long as we can maintain our major party status,” New Mexico Libertarian Party Vice Chair Helen Milenski, of Los Alamos, said.

The Libertarian Party of New Mexico has managed to register more than one-third of New Mexican voters as Libertarian.

Milenski, who is also running for a seat on the Los Alamos County Council this year, attended the retreat with Luchini.

Together, they helped moderate and organized the event, which included workshops on how best to get out candidate messages using social media and other tools.

Candidates who attended included Chris Manning for Congressional District 3, gubernatorial candidate Bob Walsh for governor, A. Blair Dunn for New Mexico attorney general, James Rickman for Los Alamos County magistrate court judge and Mayna Myers for Chaves County District 2 Magistrate Court Judge.

Johnson gave the candidates hope. According to Johnson, the majority of voters in New Mexico are independent.

“We have major party status in New Mexico. The majority of voters in New Mexico are registered as independent. Where is that representation?” he asked his fellow party members and members of the press who were in attendance. “I happen to think it’s Libertarian if you just give it a second, and look into it.”

Dunn said the numbers show they do have a chance at making a good showing in the election.

“We did polling recently that shows New Mexicans want a third party or independent option,” Dunn said. “They’re there. They’re sick of both parties in the state, we’ve had 100 years of Democrat rule with no positive results to show for it.

We’re at the bottom of every good list, we’re at the top of every bad list for anything that matters to New Mexicans.”

Milenski appreciated Johnson’s advice and message.

I think it definitely resonated with the party, and resonated as well with me,” she said. “A lot of what he had to say was about being prepared for your opposition.”