Maureen Groppe

Star Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson should be allowed to participate in this fall’s debates even if he doesn’t meet the debate commission’s current standard for third-party candidates, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said Wednesday.

The commission has said candidates need to average 15 percent or higher in national polls, a level Johnson hasn’t met.

But Daniels, who is a member of the Commission on Presidential Debates, wants a more liberal standard this year because “people are so obviously shopping and wishing for some other choice.”

Daniels, a former two-term governor of Indiana who considered running for president in 2012, also said it’s not impossible to imagine the Republican Party “fracturing in some way and reforming” after the election.

Daniels made his comments during and after an event for Purdue University alumni in Washington in which he and debate commission co-chairman Mike McCurry discussed this year’s elections.

McCurry, who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton, acknowledged that Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are viewed more negatively than positively by most voters in polls.

Libertarian candidate trying to win over Clinton, Trump haters

But if the commission changed the participation criteria because a lot of people are looking for an alternative and Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, seems like a serious guy, McCurry said, that could lead to a lawsuit.

“Courts have by and large said, ‘If you have pre-established criteria that you’ve put in place … then you’re in a good legal place,’” he said.

Daniels said afterward he knows his view is in the minority on the commission and he understands the legal argument.

“But this is awfully important,” he said. “If you have to risk a lawsuit, risk a lawsuit.”

The first debate is Sept. 26.

Johnson will speak at a public forum Tuesday at Purdue University.

The Johnson campaign is playing up the similarities between him and Daniels in an effort to drum up support among Indiana Republicans. “Johnson, like Daniels, is a strong advocate for small government and personal freedom,” the campaign said in a news release.

McCurry asked Daniels on Wednesday whether he regrets not running for president in 2012.

Daniels, who opted out because his family was opposed, said a main reason he has never looked back is that bypassing the race enabled him to make major accomplishments in his last two years as governor.

“I definitely don’t regret not running this year,” said Daniels, even as a man in the front row was wearing a “My Man Mitch” T-shirt, “because it’s no year for the sort of politics that was successful for us in a different time and place.”

Daniels said Gov. Mike Pence has “acquitted himself pretty well” as Trump’s running mate.

“He’s seen as a temperate and more steady voice than anybody else on the scene," Daniels said.

Asked what he thought the state of the GOP would be after the election, Daniels said it’s hard to imagine the election will be a blowout. That’s not because Trump is doing well, he said, but because there appears to be a ceiling on Clinton’s support.

“I hope each party will come to be led by people who want to compete for the center,” he said.

IndyStar reporter Brian Eason contributed to this story.

Email Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.

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