Since his election a year ago, Gov. Gary Johnson hasn't stopped running. Literally.
So far, he's competed in two marathons and more than 30 races of lesser distances, bicycled 500 miles across the state and leaped off a 10,000-foot mountain peak on a hang glider. If that's not enough, he twice attempted a flip from a free-style ski jump training ramp in Utah while attending a Western governors' conference.But in carrying out his duties as governor, Johnson says, he's still warming up.
"I am surprised sometimes to find out the power that I do have," says Johnson, 42, a Republican who won the governorship last year in his first bid for elective office.
Surprised or not, Johnson has been flexing his executive muscles and drawing howls of protest from Democrats, as well as some Republicans.
For example, Johnson:
- Vetoed a record 200 bills, nearly half of all the measures passed during the 1995 legislative session. He also cut nearly $50 million in spending by vetoing line items in money bills approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Money for several programs was later restored, however.
- So upset lawmakers with his vetoes that a conservative Republican legislator, Jerry Lee Alwin of Albuquerque, called Johnson "a know-it-all dictator."
- Signed gambling compacts with 14 Indian tribes to allow Las Vegas-style casinos on tribal lands - only to have the agreements nullified five months later by the state Supreme Court. Johnson exceeded his executive branch powers by signing the agreements without the approval of the Legislature, the court concluded.
- Blamed politics for influencing the court's gambling ruling and said the justices use a "chicken bone thing" to make decisions: "They put a bunch of chicken bones in the microwave and take them out and . . . there's a certain thing they need to do as the result of the way the bones lie."
- Ordered 2.5 percent reductions in the monthly budget allocations to most state agencies. But the move landed the governor in court again. District attorneys brought a lawsuit contending only the Legislature can cut the budget. A decision by the Supreme Court is pending.
Johnson's critics not only disagree with his conservative, cut-government philosophy but also complain about the governor's style - what former Democratic Attorney General Paul Bardacke has described as a "ready-aim-fire mentality" in policymaking.
"This guy is a real penny-ante, nickel-and-dime politician claiming to be completely the opposite. He is the worst I've ever seen in terms of cooperation," Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon, D-Albuquerque, said in a recent interview.
Johnson won election last November by defeating New Mexico's longest serving governor, Democrat Bruce King, who had occupied the office for three terms spread over three decades.
In contrast, Johnson brought no political or governmental experience to the job he took over Jan. 1. Before last year's campaign, the Albuquerque construction company owner had never sought elective office. His campaign slogan: "People before politics."
To this day, Johnson wears the label of "political outsider" as a badge of courage and says it defines his approach to the job of running state government - an enterprise that spends more than $5 billion in state and federal monies each year and directly employs 23,000 workers.
"I think there is a certain expectation by the public that they don't want business as usual. You don't elect somebody who's never been involved in politics and expect business as usual," said Johnson.
As a result, Johnson says, he's out to deliver "business as unusual."
His target so far has been government itself. Johnson wants to slow the growth of state spending and already can claim a certain amount of success.
The Legislature approved a budget with a nearly 7 percent increase in spending this year for general government operations and public schools. Through vetoes, Johnson held the overall spending increase to less than 6 percent.
Johnson, looking back at his first months in office, acknowledges that he's upset the Legislature. But his plans for the future seem to guarantee only more clashes.
As much as possible, Johnson said, he'll try to cut government through administrative decisions. That way he doesn't need the Legislature to approve a bill revamping state law.
"That's been kind of a cornerstone of what I said about this process - make the decisions, either yes or no, and then voters can decide whether or not they like what you've done. But at least everybody is getting kind of a bang for their vote," said Johnson.
Although government insiders criticize Johnson's ways, a majority of New Mexicans support the governor. An opinion poll by the Albuquerque Journal in September found 53 percent of those surveyed said they approved of John-son's job performance.
"What's carried him so far is the same factor that got him elected. He stands for anti-politics, anti-government and anti-politicians," says F. Chris Garcia, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico.
"I expect people will become increasingly critical, not only as more and more become critical of the specific things he has done but . . . as he becomes seen as part of the system - as a politician."