The non-interventionist, free-marketing Libertarian Party is spoiling for a fight.

Fox News Website | Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

[Dave S]

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

WASHINGTON — The non-interventionist, free-marketing Libertarian Party is spoiling for a fight.

The Libertarian Party is planning to challenge several incumbents in November in a so-called national "spoiler" strategy that could put vulnerable Republicans on more shaky ground and help stir the suspense over whether the GOP can hold a House majority and wrest back the Senate from Democratic control.

"We recognize there is a window of opportunity that did not exist up to this point," said Ron Crickenberger, political director for the Libertarian Party, which has about 30,000 members and contributors in the United States.

Crickenberger doesn't like to use the term "spoiler", but said the Libertarians see an opportunity to siphon off votes in critical districts as part of a national strategy to turn over the House and change domestic policy. All but one of the five districts targeted are Republican-run, and the incumbents are all on the hit list because of their heavy-handed support for the war on drugs and against the legalization of marijuana, a key issue for the Libertarians, whose bedrock beliefs are less government and personal freedoms.

"In this country, what we’ve looked at is how out of touch the drug policy is with the public polling," Crickenberger said, noting that so far eight states have passed medical marijuana laws despite a federal ban. A Pew Research Center/Gallup poll conducted in March showed 73 percent of voters support the medical use of marijuana with a doctor's prescription.

Among the candidates targeted for defeat are Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Tex., and Rep. Tim Hutchinson, R-Ark.

Also on the list is Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., who is locked in a tight primary race with Rep. John Linder. Whoever wins the primary is a surefire winner in this heavily Republican conservative 7th District, though Crickenberger would like to see both of them go.

"If we can take out, or help to take out a few of the drug war leaders in the course of the general election, we feel we will have a big impact on the issue in Congress," he said.

In a recent statement, Barr said he didn’t have the time to worry about the Libertarians, with whom he doesn’t agree on many issues.

"The centerpieces of the Libertarian agenda include legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution and pornography, as well as halting all restrictions on immigration," he said.

"These issues do not represent 7th District values, and I ask that all our candidates clearly and publicly distance themselves from these issues, and demand an end to involvement in our primary by the Libertarian Party."

Cleland, although taking "every candidate seriously," according to press secretary Jamal Simmons, is undeterred by his Libertarian opponent. He is in a tough re-election fight with whoever wins the much-anticipated Republican primary between Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss and State Rep. Robert Irvin.

"Max Cleland is ready to campaign against any candidate from any party in the fall," said Simmons. "He’s ready to take his 20-year record in national and state office and take it to the voters and win."

Libertarian candidates, who serve in 301 elected offices throughout the country, have acted as spoilers before. In 2000, Libertarian candidate Jeff Jared collected 64,000 votes in the Washington state Senate race that led to a recount and a 3,000-vote upset win by Democrat Maria Cantwell over Republican incumbent Sen. Slade Gorton.

And since the 2000 presidential election that saw Green Party candidate Ralph Nader strake off enough votes for former Vice President Al Gore to lose Florida, and thus the election, the impact of third parties is apparent.

"It isn’t a focused strategy of ours to target incumbents for defeat," said Green Party political director Dean Myerson. "But when you run strong, people lose"

Analysts say they doubt that the Libertarians will be able to pull off the spoiler strategy based on the drug issue alone.

"If I were a candidate I wouldn’t exactly shudder, but if I were the Libertarians I would give it a go," said Thomas Mann, co-editor of The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, who added that while the third party might not topple the incumbent, it might rattle some cages.

"You should be running to educate the people," said Stephen Hess, a political analyst with the Brookings Institution, who called the spoiler strategy "despicable and beneath the Libertarians.

"If everybody tried this trick it would be a country of multi parties in the worst sense," he said.

But Crickenberger said the founding fathers envisioned a "rotating process" that allowed for fresh ideas and new faces in Congress, and Myerson agreed, saying without a full multi-party process, smaller groups will continue to play the spoilers.

"It doesn’t have to be the this way, but as long as it does were going to run candidates," Myerson said.

[Dave S]

Libertarians are going to try and throw elections to the Dems in order to push their pro drug agenda. So much for conservatism.

[Poohbah]

Libertarians are not conservatives.

They are a Gramscian pawn against freedom.

[Physicist]

Libertarians are going to try and throw elections to the Dems in order to push their pro drug agenda.

The idiots. Freedom should be fought for within the Republican party. It's this sort of crap that drives the Objectivists away from the Libertarian party.

[Kevin Curry]

"The centerpieces of the Libertarian agenda include legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution and pornography, as well as halting all restrictions on immigration," [Rep. Bob Barr] said.

Looks like the good congressman hit the liberdopians' agenda dead-center. I don't suspect you'll appreciate his candor and aim, though.

[rising tide]

Sounds like the Libertatians plan to follow in the footsteps of spoiled children who would rather be destructive but noticed rather than just plain irrelivent.

[Tacis]

BOTH OF THEM????!! This is terrible, first the Flat Earth Society, now both Libertarians!

[Senator Pardek]

You must have me mixed up with someone else - I'm a Republican, not a Libertarian.

[The Raven]

I too questioned the Libetarian's position on legalizing drugs. Then I heard the explanation from the recent televised Cato Institute anniversay.

It's another example (drug prohibition) of the federal government assuming powers it doesn't have. The Constitution needs to be ammended to ban drugs....the same way it was ammended to ban alcohol.

So their point is valid. If we allow the government to assume powers, they will do so.

[The Raven]

try again with a second look at spelling

I too questioned the Libertarian’s position on legalizing drugs. Then I heard the explanation from the recent televised Cato Institute anniversary.

It's another example (drug prohibition) of the federal government assuming powers it doesn't have. The Constitution needs to be amended to ban drugs....the same way it was amended to ban alcohol.

[Fish out of Water]

*Index Bump

[Mike4Freedom]

When Libertarians run against Republicans, we are generally selective. We only challenge those that ignore constitutional rights. All good conservatives should be doing the same thing. We are not radical at all, we just want what the Founding Fathers wanted and what good Republicans should want as well-a constitutional Republic, where the limits placed on government are enforced.

All the Federal drug warriors advocate violations of the constitution on a regular basis. I will not support them just because they are Republicans. I don't need a Republican police state any more than I need a Democrat police state.

Republicans that honor the constitution do not get Libertarian opponents. Trouble is, I only know of one of those guys, Ron Paul of Texas. Do you of any others?

[GraniteStateConservative]

The funniest things about this strategy is that the twenty-and-thirty-somethings that vote Libertarian in these elections they've targeted, are likely to be a natural constituency of the Democraps and not the Republicans. The GOP will be helped by this cockeyed strategy.

[donozark]

Better title for article may be "Libertarians target Bob Barr for defeat in Georgia." Barr is one of the best friends RKBA has! A Director of NRA. Highly respected by GOA. And Libertarians want to trash him over pharmaceuticals?

[Arleigh]

...a so-called national "spoiler" strategy that could put vulnerable Republicans on more shaky ground ...

I wish the Buchannan Brigade would do something similar on a nationalist platform. With 90% of the population against more immigration - legal or illegal - it wouldn't be hard to peel away enough votes to hand the RepublicRats a serious defeat and make them re-think their "We're Already Rich, so Screw America" platform.

[ForOurFuture]

As a libertarian, I am confused and disheartened by this strategy.

[not-an-ostrich]

I had only a vague idea there was a Libertarian Party before these years of reading their posts on Free Republic so what I have read was absorbed with an open mind and unbiased opinion. The opinion I have formed is all they will ever be is spoilers.

[jennyp]

The idiots. Freedom should be fought for within the Republican party. It's this sort of crap that drives the Objectivists away from the Libertarian party.

Yep.

[ganesha]

Not necessarily. People who smoke recreational marijuana will sometimes say they are libertarian, but they almost always vote for democrats even if it means voting for democrats who support the war on drugs. The libertarians will not succeed in stealing a large pot smoking liberal constituency from the democratic party.

Furthermore there is no reason for anyone on the left to vote for a third party since Bush is in the white house and therefore the democrats are the party of the "loyal" opposition. The greens are completely irrelevant and most of their followers will vote for whomever the democrats pick.

The people who might be tempted to vote libertarian are those who are not socialist enough to vote for the democrats, but are disgruntled at Bush for increasing the size and intrusiveness of government. I don't forsee a mass defection unless Bush screws up badly.

[DoSomethingAboutIt]

"The power to destroy a thing is the power to control it"

As soon as the Republiacns are on the right side of the Bill of Rights then they will have nothing to fear from Libertarians.

[Mark Turbo]

"The centerpieces of the Libertarian agenda include legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution and pornography, as well as halting all restrictions on immigration," he said. "These issues do not represent 7th District values, and I ask that all our candidates clearly and publicly distance themselves from these issues, and demand an end to involvement in our primary by the Libertarian Party."

The Georgia Lottery is almost certainly played by many in the 7th District. Barr can't lay the blame for this on the LP.