Meet Gary Johnson
Gary Earl Johnson is a successful entrepreneur and two-time Republican Governor (1995-2003) of New Mexico, who came from outside of politics to defeat an incumbent Democratic Governor by a ten point margin at a time when Democrats held a two-to-one party registration advantage in the state. Gary ran both of his campaigns as 100% positive, never mentioning his opponents once.Gary graduated from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque in 1975, and it was there that he met his wife Denise "Dee" Simms (1952-2006), with whom he had two children: daughter, Seah, and son, Erik. While in college, Gary earned money as a door-to-door handyman. His success encouraged him to start his own business, Big J Enterprises, which he founded in 1976. Gary eventually grew Big J into a multi-million dollar corporation. By the time he sold the company, in 1999, it was one of New Mexico's leading construction companies.
As Governor, Gary was well-known for his personal liberty-oriented, "common sense business" approach to governance. He dramatically curtailed taxes and spending, vetoing 750 bills (more than all the vetoes of the other 49 Governors in the country at that time, combined), with only two overrides.
Some of Governor Johnson's accomplishments include:
Reducing taxes $123 million annually.
Eliminating the state's budget deficit.
Shrinking the size of state government by 1200 employees (without firing anyone).
Leaving the state government with all-time high bond ratings.
Enacting major welfare reform, which cut government welfare spending by 30%.
Shifting state Medicaid to managed care.
Bringing the New Mexico state government and the Navajo nation leadership together to finally resolve century-old disputes over water, gaming, and other issues.
Privatizing half of the prisons in the state.
Shooting down campaign finance legislation.
Attracting many new private and parochial schools into the state.
Repealing the Little Davis-Bacon Act, thereby allowing non-unionized labor the ability to be employed in construction of new schools and other public works.
Overseeing the construction of 500 miles of new, four-lane highway (designed, financed, built, and guaranteed by the private sector).
Since returning to private life, Gary has spent much of his time competing in several triathalons and countless other major sports events, as well as being an outspoken supporter for physical fitness. In 2003, Gary climbed Mount Everest (with a broken leg). He has now decided to speak out on the direction that big-government politicians are taking this country, and challenges the Republicans to step up to the plate and become the leaders they were supposed to be.
To hear more from Gary Johnson, visit his website at OurAmericaInitiative.com.
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GARY JOHNSON'S SEVEN PRINCIPLES
OF GOOD GOVERNMENT |
1. Become reality driven. Don’t kid yourself or others. Find out what’s what and base your decisions and actions on that.
2. Always be honest and tell the truth. It’s extremely difficult to do any damage to anybody when you are willing to tell the truth–regardless of the consequences.
3. Always do what’s right and fair. Remember, the more you actually accomplish, the louder your critics become. You’ve got to learn to ignore your critics. You’ve got to continue to do what you think is right. You’ve got to maintain your integrity.
4. Determine your goal, develop a plan to reach that goal, and then act. Don’t procrastinate.
5. Make sure everybody who ought to know what you’re doing knows what you’re doing. Communicate.
6. Don’t hesitate to deliver bad news. There is always time to salvage things. There is always time to fix things. Anything that can be revealed eventually should be revealed immediately.
7. Last, be willing to do whatever it takes to get your job done. If you’ve got a job that you don’t love enough to do what it takes to get your job done, then quit and get one that you do love, and then make a difference. |
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