There was reggae music booming from big speakers, lapel pins shaped like marijuana leaves and a speech by California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the liberal former mayor of San Francisco who is famous for granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
And yet there Gary Johnson stood this month, drawing cheers from a crowd of drug decriminalization activists.
Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, has promised that if he wins the Republican nomination and is elected president, he'll issue a pardon for anyone serving prison time for a nonviolent marijuana crime. He has also pledged to overhaul the tax system and cut federal spending by 43%.
What Johnson's shoestring presidential campaign lacks in resources and media attention — which is a lot — it has made up for in eccentricities. Consider last month, when the candidate showed up to talk economics with protesters at Occupy Wall Street. Or his recent 458-mile barnstorming tour of New Hampshire — on a bicycle.
In October, Johnson rented a house in Manchester and decided to focus his campaign efforts entirely on New Hampshire, where he hopes his candid style and libertarian leanings will appeal to Republican primary voters famous for their independent streak.
"My entire career, everything has always been different," said Johnson, a former building contractor and self-made millionaire who won the governorship in 1994 with no previous political experience. "And isn't that what people want these days? Something different?"
But seven months into his campaign, Johnson has yet to climb higher than 3% in polls of voters' preference for Republican primary candidates. He has been left out of most of them, and he has been excluded from all but two of the televised Republican debates. That has made an imposing challenge out of fundraising and expanding his name recognition beyond his small but ardent core of supporters.