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Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is running for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

(The Associated Press)

Gary Johnson was the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. Fed up with the Grand Old Party long before the advent of Candidate Trump, he's now a libertarian, describing himself as "an antiwar, anti-Fed, pro-personal liberties, slash-government-spending" politician. In 2012, he scored 1.3 million votes as the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate.

He believes he will do much better this year, assuming he nails down the party's nomination again, as he expects to do. And he could be right. In a recent Monmouth University poll, he stood at 11 percent in a three-way match-up with the major-party front-runners. Democrat Hillary Clinton came in at 42 percent and insurgent, anti-Establishment Republican Donald Trump took 34 percent.

He says he hopes an anti-Trump Republican like former Texas Gov. Rick Perry makes a play for the Libertarian presidential slot at the party's May convention. "It would be great to have somebody really high profile show up and run for the Libertarian nomination," he told the Wall Street Journal this week. "That would be terrific." Johnson believes he would still end up as the nominee again and that the increased media attention would give him a big boost. (If no candidate gets to 270 electoral college votes with Clinton and Trump on the ballot in the fall, might the GOP-led House of Representatives select Johnson, the former Republican, as the next president? It's not likely, but nothing can be ruled out in this crazy political year.)

The 63-year-old Johnson, who will be in Portland on Friday for a Libertarian Party event, made his name in the construction business and most recently ran a marijuana company. In fact, he's a big proponent of the notorious weed that is now legal in Colorado, Alaska and, of course, Oregon and Washington.

"I don't know if you've been to Colorado, but it's just vibrant," Johnson said of the Silver State post-legalization. "It's the freedom state now. There's been less crime, less traffic accidents. Let's see, what else can we cite?"

Johnson was asked why he believes marijuana legalization has led to fewer car crashes. His response was ... interesting.

"In a different day, in a different time, when I indulged in marijuana to the point that I should not have been behind the wheel of a car, I never found myself outside the lanes," he said. "I never found myself driving less than the speed limit, because I might get caught for it. I always obeyed all traffic signs. I had no idea where I was but I knew that if I kept on driving it would come to me, and it came to me every time."

Considering that experience, there's only one conclusion he could draw: the world "would be a better place" with all drugs legalized.

-- Douglas Perry