Via the NY Times: GOP pushes back at Gary Johnson; “taking his conservative Nader-spoiler-like candidacy seriously.”

Mr. Gary Johnson may be “only a blip in the polls,”—he may have only “roughly $50,000 in the bank” and may be largely ignored by mainstream media—and he polls less than 1% support, nationally.

But with polls showing the Obama/Romney race to have evened up—the GOP, and to some extent the Obama campaign,

Aides to Mr. Romney, while playing down his impact on their candidate, say Mr. Johnson is more likely to hurt Mr. Obama in the potentially critical state of Colorado, where a marijuana initiative Mr. Johnson supports is expected to draw young voters to his cause on Election Day.

And they should: Gary is on the ballot in every state except Michigan and Oklahoma.

Via the NY Times:

“The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times have measured his support at about 1 percent — far more than the 537-vote margin that was ultimately deemed to have separated Mr. Bush from Mr. Gore in 2000…

Around the country, Republican operatives have been making moves to keep Mr. Johnson from becoming their version of Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate whose relatively modest support cut into Al Gore’s 2000 vote arguably enough to help hand the decisive states of Ohio and Florida to George W. Bush.

Gary’s positions:

“…He advocated legalized marijuana and a 43 percent cut in military spending”

“Mr. Johnson supports same-sex marriage and abortion rights and opposes government surveillance.”

The GOP, the NY Times reports, have engaged in hard ball tactics, some ruled illegal and out of bounds by our courts.

For more on that, click here.