Jess Aloe

Free Press Staff Writer

SOUTH BURLINGTON - When Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson took the stage in South Burlington Wednesday night, he asked the crowd if this year's presidential election was the craziest election of any time.

"You know how crazy it is?" he asked, as the crowd cheered. "I'm going to be the next president of the United States."

Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, is running on a platform of increasing civil liberties, legalizing marijuana, reducing military spending and removing barriers to free trade. He spoke about a wide range of policy positions to a crowd at the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center from relieving student debt to finding a free market approach to rising health care costs.

Prior to the event, he and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, met with a handful of Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, Tim Burditt, R-West Rutland, Paul Dame, R-Essex Junction, and Patti Komline, R-Dorset.

Burditt, Komline and Scheuermann appeared on the dias with him as well.

Scheuermann said she had come to the meeting leaning towards supporting the Libertarian ticket, and was swayed into publicly supporting the two governors after having a conversation with them. Their message of fiscal conservatism and social tolerance would appeal to Vermonters, she said.

Burditt told the governors he was glad to have candidates he could vote for, rather than simply choosing between the two major party candidates.

"The lesser of two evils is still evil," Komline said. "We're very happy to have the two of you step up," she said.

Weld told the politicos gathered at the Sheraton that their candidacy was giving Republicans who were put off by Donald Trump to hide out, and said having the Johnson/Weld option could bring many Republicans who might otherwise stay home out to the polls.

Johnson sat down with the Burlington Free Press prior to his evening rally at the Sheraton in South Burlington to detail his policy proposals and talk about his campaign.

He is the only minor party candidate who will appear on the ballot in all fifty states. He previously ran for president on the Libertarian ticket in 2012, and received around 1 percent of the vote. This cycle, he's polling closer to 10 percent. He attributed his success to dissatisfaction with the two major party candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

But most people, he added, don't know he's running. He said he expects to see his numbers rise as his campaign continues to push out his message.

Johnson summed up his ideas by saying he believed in letting Americans choose. He believes in school choice, he said, and he wants to abolish a federal Department of Education to place control of schools in the hands of state governments.

Though he strongly believes in free trade and free market capitalism, he said he does see a place for government regulation. He cited the Environmental Protection Agency as an example, saying he sees companies polluting water as an issue the government can play a role in.

Though he believes in free trade and supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said he was opposed to crony capitalism, and compared his view to Sanders.

"Crony capitalism is when the government gets involved and skews the market," he said. "The free market is devoid of government."

He cited recent media reports about rising costs for the EpiPen as an example. He said he'd want to look into how Mylan, the maker of the epinephrine injection device used to reverse life-threatening allergy attacks, achieved a monopoly on the drug.

Johnson made a pitch to supporters of Vermont's Bernie Sanders, who ended his bid for the Democratic nomination at last month's party convention to endorse Clinton. Johnson said his beliefs are closer to Sanders' than any of the other candidates.

But Andre Clark of Winooski, who came to Johnson's rally in a Bernie Sanders t-shirt, said he wasn't fully convinced by Johnson.

Clark, 26, said he felt Johnson was the only sensible candidate polling high enough to get the debates, but felt that Johnson's position on cutting taxes was the opposite end of the spectrum from Sanders.

"I need to do a lot more research," he said.

Johnson is focused now on getting his poll numbers to 15 percent. Reaching that threshold means he'll be able to appear in the presidential debate on Sept. 26 alongside Clinton and Trump.

And Weld said he was confident that if the Libertarians could get into the debates, they'd "run the table."

If they got into the debates, he said, they would start to get lots of attention from the national press, and be able to bring their message to voters.

Both governors are convinced that many Vermonters, and many Americans, just don't know they're Libertarians yet.

This story was first published online on August 24, 2016. Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jaloe.

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