Paul not official Libertarian candidate

Taylor Kessinger claimed that Ron Paul was the Libertarian Party’s favored candidate (“”Good week for the Libertarian Party”” 3/26).

While the party leadership, perhaps as an overture toward Paul’s supporters, invited him to campaign for the party’s presidential nomination, Ron Paul has not taken them up on the offer. He remains a Republican and is campaigning for re-election to the House of Representatives.

Front-running candidates for the LP’s presidential nomination are physics professor George Phillies, California activist Steve Kubby and oddsmaker Wayne Root. Some serious talk is going around about a Mary Ruwart nomination or a Bob Barr/Mike Gravel ticket. The LP is also seeking candidates to run locally, for nonpartisan “”farm team”” offices, county supervisor and the Legislature.

Kessinger is right in noting that Gravel is more libertarian than Paul; Paul is a John Birch Society-type social-reactionary whose views on the size and scope of the federal government appeal enough to many libertarians that they hold their nose when it comes to his take on religious liberty, gay rights and immigration. The FairTax is kept from being regressive by a system of exemptions and refunds; the folks who want to punish the poor tend to be Ayn Rand Institute “”Objectivists,”” about as similar to libertarians as chimps are to humans. I wouldn’t put Gravel in that camp.

Bennett Kalafut
physics doctoral student
1st Vice-Chairman, Pima County
Libertarian Party