Libertarian presidential hopeful visits

Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik said that while he's not likely to win the election, there's a chance he could.

"The problem is we've got to tell people I exist," Badnarik told a group of about 60 in a meeting room at Bugsy's restaurant and bar on Sahara Avenue Monday night.

If only he had the name recognition of one his taller supporters, Strip magician Penn Jillette, who like some others at the Monday meeting with their presidential candidate, said their votes are about making a choice they can live with.

"I could not care less about pragmatism," the Rio headliner and longtime Libertarian said. "I do what's right."

Jillette, 49, said the Libertarian Party is in sync with his beliefs as a "real Bill of Rights guy," adding that he is "as far right as you can go with money, and as left as you can go with sex."

Or as Badnarik and other Libertarian candidates said, theirs is the party of liberty -- a belief in a limited government that lets people do what they want so long as it doesn't interfere with the rights of others to live as they wish.

Badnarik said he supports ending the war in Iraq, gay marriage and eliminating the personal income tax. He also believes any form of gun control is unconstitutional.

The challenge, party members said, is getting the voters to hear their message.

To that end Badnarik's campaign is working to generate the necessary 15 percent support in the polls to get into the presidential debates, the first of which is Sept. 30.

"If I can get 15 percent in the polls, I get to play in the national debates," Badnarik said. "We may not win the White House, but we can get into the debate."

And to advance in the polls, Badnarik's campaign is buying as much time for television commercials as it can afford, including some new commercials scheduled to begin airing in Nevada next week.

A nationwide commercial campaign would cost $5 million, Badnarik said. So far, the campaign has about $500,000. A fund-raiser on Sunday in Las Vegas brought in about $11,000 for the campaign and was the party's most lucrative event in the nation to date, party officials said.

Nevada's status as a swing state that could go for President Bush or Democratic nominee John Kerry is also attracting Badnarik's campaign here because it gives the Libertarian Party the chance to "demonstrate that we can change the balance," Badnarik said.

Libertarian Charles Barr, 61, of Las Vegas, said, "I don't think we're going to win any election in the near future. But maybe we can get enough votes so the major parties will have to modify their positions."

During his Monday speech to supporters, Badnarik, a 50-year-old computer programmer from Austin, Texas, slammed the Patriot Act, which he said eliminated the protection of being considered innocent until proven guilty, the Internal Revenue Service, which he would eliminate, and the federal Education Department, which he would also eliminate.

He also said that while he would keep Social Security as an option, he would back privatizing retirement accounts.

Badnarik did not address Yucca Mountain during his speech, but afterward said he would push to reuse so much of the spent nuclear fuel slated to go to the proposed nuclear waste dump that it wouldn't be needed.

"Even if you do have some left, I believe in state's rights and so the federal government can't force Nevada to take it," Badnarik said about nuclear waste.

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