You won’t see Gary Johnson next Thursday (Aug. 11) at the Republican candidates’ debate in Ames, Iowa which will be nationally televised on the FOX Newschannel.

Johnson’s campaign released a statement late Friday (Aug. 5) saying the longshot GOP presidential candidate and former New Mexico governor will concentrate his efforts on New Hampshire because the “Ames Straw poll has much more to do with organizing bus loads of supporters than it does with ideas and solutions to our country’s economic problems, or the even the electability of candidates.”

Johnson was in danger of not getting invited to the Aug. 11 debate after he was left off the official ballot. (Click here for that story.) Johnson has been struggling to gain some attention and traction in the Republican race.

“The Johnson campaign is not abandoning Iowa,” the statement said, “as only last week Governor Johnson participated for his second year in RAGBRAI [bicycle race] activities . That, however, is a very different thing than participating in a straw poll, months before the caucuses.”

The Johnson campaign says it has doubled its staff in New Hampshire, site of one of the most important primaries in presidential elections.

“We are making a strategic decision to spend our resources and time doing retail politics in New Hampshire,” the news release went on say.

Last month, Johnson said in an interview with Capitol Report New Mexico that “it really is disheartening” to see his name at or near the bottom of GOP contenders but Johnson insisted he’ll stay in the race “until the end.”

Looks like it’s New Hampshire or bust.

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In the meantime, Johnson’s campaign released this online video that was picked up by the Wall Street Journal’s website, highlighting Johnson’s call for legalizing marijuana:

 

Johnson also released a statement concerning the US getting downgraded in its credit rating by Standard & Poor’s:

“Losing our AAA credit rating is obviously bad. The reasons for it are much worse, much more important, and not complicated. Everyone from our largest creditor, China, to the 14 million Americans who are unemployed get the simple reality that a $14.6 trillion debt is unsustainable. They also get that simply raising our credit limit is not an economic policy and certainly not a solution. Washington can dance around reality all they want, but there is only one way to get us off the path toward financial disaster: Enact real spending cuts now — not ten or twenty years down the road, and balance the budget.”