Democratic Congressman Tom Udall, who said: "I think the real test of leadership is when you have circumstances like this. He's called on his reserves of energy and has just been a really excellent leader under very difficult circumstances here." Johnson rebuffed efforts by the Libertarian Party to draft him in the 2000 presidential election, stating himself to be a Republican with no interest in running for president. Reception According to anonymous sources, Governor Johnson was known for a lack of interest in policy details and those who worked with Johnson at the time "recall a chief executive who would speed through meetings and often preferred to discuss his fitness routine than focus on the minutiae of policymaking." In his first term, he frequently clashed with the legislature, but in the second term, he "became more comfortable with the limits of his executive power" and took a more conciliatory approach. Commentator Andrew Sullivan quoted a claim that Johnson "is highly regarded in the state for his outstanding leadership during two terms as governor. He slashed the size of state government during his term and left the state with a large budget surplus." In an interview in Reason in January 2001, Johnson's accomplishments in office were described as follows: "no tax increases in six years, a major road building program, shifting Medicaid to managed care, constructing two new private prisons, canning 1,200 state employees, and vetoing a record number of bills." According to one New Mexico paper, "Johnson left the state fiscally solid" and was "arguably the most popular governor of the decade... leaving the state with a $1 billion budget surplus." The Washington Times reported that when Johnson left office, "the size of state government had been substantially reduced and New Mexico was enjoying a large budget surplus." In a 2016 National Review article, Johnson was criticized for claiming to have balanced New Mexico's budget every year. The Constitution of New Mexico requires that the state budget be balanced, with its debt in a separate "capital outlay" budget. The article stated that under Johnson New Mexico's debt increased from $1.8 billion to $4.6 billion and its budget increased from $4.397 billion to $7.721 billion. According to a 2011 profile of Johnson in the National Review, "During his tenure, he vetoed more bills than the other 49 governors combined750 in total, one third of which had been introduced by Republican legislators.