Ron Paul to Announce Presidential Exploratory Committee

Ron Paul’s expected announcement today that he will form a presidential exploratory committee and likely get into the Republican presidential race is bad news for former Gov. Gary Johnson’s nascent bid for the White House.

Johnson, who shares many of Paul’s libertarian-leaning views, is much-lesser known on the national stage and certainly hoped to siphon off some of those voters who supported Paul’s unexpectedly popular presidential campaign in 2008. Johnson announced his campaign in New Hampshire last week.

At a press conference after Johnson’s announcement, a reporter asked the former governor what effect a Paul candidacy would have on his own bid. Johnson didn’t seem to want to go there.

“I ran two campaigns for governor where I didn’t mention my opponent in print, radio or television,” Johnson said. “The idea was to present ideas…to give people a choice as opposed to the lesser of two evils. So, in the case of me comparing myself to others I’m not the person to talk to. I’d let you draw those conclusions.”

I followed up with Johnson on the Paul question later in the day and he suggested that he needs to do much better than Paul did in 2008, when Paul averaged about 9 or 10 percent of the votes in early GOP primaries. Paul dropped out of the race in June 2008.

“If Ron Paul and I split 54 percent of the Republican vote that’s a bad thing, but if we split Ron Paul’s nine percent last time he went out…we’ve just got to grow that base,” Johnson said.