Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

The 2016 election is historic for a number of reasons. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is the first woman ever to garner a major party’s nomination. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has never held office before.

And people don’t necessarily like the two.

Record high unfavorable ratings have followed the candidates for much of the election, another reason it’s historic. Clinton’s numbers have improved as of late, but Trump still sits at nearly 60 percent unfavorable and many Americans still say they want an alternative.

That’s where Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is hoping to make his play. The former Republican New Mexico governor has made a hard push for those disaffected voters, and he's made some ground.

Johnson — who is set to make his first appearance in Reno at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Joe Crowley Student Union — and his vice-presidential running mate William Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, portray themselves as a “sane” alternative. Both Johnson and Weld governed over Democratic states and left their posts while quite popular.

Libertarian presidential candidate visiting Reno on Friday

The Libertarian Party is somewhat of a mix between Democrats and Republicans, espousing laissez faire attitudes on both social and fiscal issues. The party platform states in the preamble the “world we seek to build is one where individuals are free to follow their own dreams in their own ways, without interference from government or any authoritarian power.”

Johnson falls in line with much of that. He’s for the legalization of marijuana. He’s pro-choice. He wants immigration reform to encourage people to come to the United States. He’s for simplifying the tax code and closing corporate loopholes. He thinks state and local government should have more control over schooling and advocates for school choice.

Recent polling shows Johnson at around 10 percent as he inches his way to the crucial 15 percent mark — the number required to be included in presidential debates and gain massive amounts of exposure.

Truckee Meadows Community College political science professor Fred Lokken said Johnson’s outlook in Nevada could be pretty good.

“The reason I think Johnson stands an excellent chance is first because the problems on the Republican side with Donald Trump,” said Lokken, a registered nonpartisan. “You have a number of more mainstream republicans who just don’t know where they should go this year.”

“What they find with Johnson is a successful Republican governor of New Mexico and I think that works for them,” Lokken added. “If they’re feeling they have to vote for someone and they just can’t do it for Donald Trump, there may be enough of those in the state of Nevada and enough of those nationally for the Libertarian Party to have a better showing than in recent years.”

But Johnson hasn’t quite caught on in Nevada yet. The latest polling showed him at about five percent.

History isn't on his side either. Since 1988, Johnson had the best showing of any Libertarian candidate, pulling in 1.08 percent of the vote in 2012. That’s less than 2000 Green Party candidate Ralph Nader’s 2.46 percent and far short of Reform Party candidate Ross Perot’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns.

State elections have also proven difficult for Libertarians. In 2014, no Libertarian candidate finished with more than 10 percent of the vote.

Even beating Nevada’s option of “none of these candidates” — a protest vote — is a challenge for the party. Since 1988, the Libertarian Party has only bested the protest vote option once: Johnson's run in 2012.

Yet other candidates are hoping a political brand outside the Republican or Democrat label will prove successful this time around.

Ten candidates are running under the Libertarian banner for the Legislature, including two in Northern Nevada – David Colborne in Senate District 15 and Brandon Jacobs in Senate District 13. The two most high-profile candidates in the state are brothel owner Dennis Hof in Tonopah’s Assembly District 36 and Assemblyman John Moore in Las Vegas’ Assembly District 8. Moore was elected as a Republican but switched to Libertarian in January.

The struggle can be quite real for these candidates. Fundraising can be difficult and even getting their name out can prove challenging, Colborne said.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t participate, it just means there are certain things I’m not be doing,” Colborne said. “I’m not dropping $100,000 on TV ads. And that’s okay, because if I’m dropping money on TV ads, I’m probably dropping money on people who aren’t in my district. It’s not like there’s a Senate District 15 TV affiliate.”

Instead, Colborne said he relies on outside-the-box thinking. His signs are bright pink and meant to capture people's attention and he tries to use social media and online advertising as much as possible.

Of the two running for state Senate in Northern Nevada, the most recent campaign filings from June show Colborne has raised the most with $3,060.79. More than half is his own money. His opponents Republican Heidi Gansert and Democrat Devon Reese have raised six figure sums each.

Jacobs has raised $162 – $62 from himself and $100 from Colborne. His Republican opponent Kent Bailey raised just more than $11,000 while Democrat Julia Ratti raised more than $65,000.

Hof raised $10,000 – all of it his own money – compared with incumbent Republican Assemblyman James Oscarson’s more than $159,000.

Assemblyman John Moore has been the most successful at raising money, tallying just more than $56,000 according to the latest filing. More than half of that came from rolling over $29,240 from his previous campaign, but he has attracted some contributions, namely five donations worth $25,000 all from out of state. Moore has outraised Republican Norm Ross, but Democrat Jason Frierson’s more than $125,000 dwarfed Moore’s.

Hof and Moore did not respond to requests for comment.

Even at the presidential level, records from the Federal Election Commission from the February to July filing dates show Clinton has raised nearly $130 million to Johnson’s $1.3 million. News reports from several months ago stated Trump was having trouble raising money, but he still bests Johnson with nearly $72 million over the same period.

State registration isn’t on the Libertarian Party’s side either. The latest numbers showed about 11,000 people were registered Libertarian while around 465,000 were registered Republican and 537,000 were registered Democrat. Part of the problem is Republicans have absorbed libertarians throughout the years, Jacobs said.

"It’s one of those things where in Nevada or in general, Republicans have courted libertarians so well in the past that libertarianism has always been pretty muted because there’s a whole libertarian wing of the Republican Party," he said.

While history shows it is unlikely that Johnson will win, he could play another role in the presidential campaign as a spoiler to Trump. Many attribute former Democratic Vice President Al Gore's 2000 loss to Nader's less than three percent nationwide total.

Johnson's outlook might be even better than Nader's, Lokken said.

"I think he stands a chance of getting a good showing for a third party in America."

Colborne said he realizes it will be tough to take the election, but he runs his seemingly quixotic campaign for other reasons.

“Right now my priority is fighting to win because in order for me to accomplish what needs to be accomplished, there’s no other way for me to do it,” Colborne said. “If I’m not trying to win then there’s just no point. Nobody is going to follow, nobody is going to offer support, nobody is going to consider Libertarian candidates in the future.”