Republicans have a presidential candidate to support: Sen. John McCain. Democrats also have their man: Sen. Barack Obama.
But Libertarians in New Hampshire could have two people to choose from on their presidential ticket, a situation that pleases the state's party chairman but has others worried about confusing voters and diluting what small clout the party has.
The national
Libertarian Party has tapped former Republican congressman Bob Barr to lead the charge to the White House. But because Barr hadn't declared his presidential aspirations whenthe state party met last fall, it voted to place Massachusetts Libertarian activist George Phillies on the New Hampshire ballot, and began to get the signatures of 3,000 registered voters needed to put him there.
Since then, Barr started
his campaign and last week earned a bit of national media attention when a Zogby poll had him notching 10 percent in a popular opinion poll of New Hampshire voters. With him polling respectably in other states, several political pundits started theorizing that he could cleave into McCain's base by peeling away some libertarian-leaning Republicans.
But with Phillies already earning the state party's support, some libertarians fret that Barr might not gain enough signatures needed to even make the ballot, and if he does, the double Libertarian offering might lead voters to ignore them both.
"They're going to blow it again this year," said Tom Simmons, a Fitzwilliam resident who doesn't belong to the state or national party but is libertarian in philosophy.
Under the pseudonym "Tully," Simmons writes columns for the political blog
Nolan Chart, a clearinghouse for libertarian, conservative, centrist, liberal and even statist viewpoints. In a column last month, Simmons chastised the state Libertarian Party for not backing Barr and standing by Phillies. "Now's there's a name that the average voter will recognize . . . .NOT," he wrote.
In a telephone interview, Simmons said he and other libertarians are concerned that despite Barr's good polling numbers, he won't get the 3,000 signatures required by the state Secretary of State's office to appear on the presidential ballot.
But Brendan Kelly, chairman of the state Libertarian Party, said Barr has supporters pounding the pavement and should acquire the necessary signatures by the Aug. 6 deadline.
Potentially having two candidates on one ballot shouldn't pose any problems, Kelly said. In fact, it benefits the party, he said.
"Look at the attention it's going to draw," Kelly said. "You can tell Libertarians, 'Look at the ballot. You have a choice.' And any attention is good attention."
About three years ago, long before Barr announced his intention to run, Phillies started working the state, Kelly said. "He became the guy most of us saw," he said.
Because the next Libertarian convention occurs beyond the state deadline for placing names on ballots, the party couldn't wait for any other candidate to emerge, Kelly said. (Any party that doesn't receive 5 percent of the electorate in a statewide vote must collect signatures to be placed on the next ballot.)
Phillies could bow out and cede the ballot to Barr, Kelly said. Nothing at the moments suggests that will occur, but if Phillies takes one for the party, a court ruling would have to pave his way to the exit.
Most states allow so-called placeholders to remove their names from ballots to allow other candidates to join the fray at the last minute, but New Hampshire and Massachusetts do not. A lawsuit filed in Massachusetts seeks to reverse that state's policy, and if Libertarians win, they'll use it as legal precedent to make the same case in New Hampshire, Kelly said.
Despite his relative obscurity, Phillies has support in the party.
Ken Blevens, perhaps the most recognized Libertarian in New Hampshire, backs him.
"George believes in less government. He truly believes in less government, less taxes and a foreign policy that doesn't include interventionist ideas," said Blevens, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican
John Sununu.
Blevens wouldn't directly comment on whether he believes Barr isn't "libertarian enough" – a charge leveled by some in the state and national parties. Barr joined the party in 2006.
Simmons said the Phillies-Barr split reflects the philosophical rift among state libertarians. Purists support Phillies, believing he holds true to party thinking, while remaining skeptical about Barr's libertarian leanings, Simmons said.
In the end, it may not be Barr or Phillies who hurt McCain, but Ron Paul, the Republican congressman who ran for president,
University of New Hampshire political science associate professor Dante Scala said.
Paul – who once ran for president under the Libertarian Party banner, but said he would not run as an independent in the general election this year – had a small-but-passionate base in New Hampshire, garnering 8 percent of the vote in January's primary. Many Republicans and many libertarians could write in Paul's name, Scala said. And the obvious split between Barr and Phillies will lessen the party's traction on the overall ballot, he said.
As it is, the Libertarian Party usually doesn't fare well in presidential elections, Scala said. New Hampshire has many libertarian-minded people but not as many Libertarian voters, he said.
