EXIT STAGE RIGHT
Everyone but Bloomfield millionaire presidential candidate Perry Johnson saw the proverbial writing on the wall when he first announced that he would seek the GOP nomination to run for the nation’s top job. So it came as no surprise when he recently announced that he was pulling out of the race for the White House. After all, he failed three times to make the party cut for the debate stage, even after spending millions, much of his own money, to keep the campaign fires burning. According to the most recent federal election commission filing, Johnson’s campaign committee gathered $14.57 million in receipts. However, the report filing shows that $1.88 million of that total was a candidate contribution. Then there is a listing for a $12.5 million loan from the candidate to his own committee, something that he is likely never to see repaid, much like the nearly $7 million he loaned his committee when he tried running for governor in the last election. But that is not stopping Johnson from looking for another race to join. As pointed out by Oakland Confidential in late September, he is still talking about throwing his hat in the ring with the GOP members to run for the Stabenow’s U.S. Senate seat. One GOP insider said that the Johnson run for president was more of a vanity effort with the hoped-for end result being a position with the D.C.-based administration if a Republican wins in 2024, but we’re not sure how a run for the Senate fits into that scenario.