Libertarians Select Presidential Candidate

Amid raucous claps and chants, Libertarian Party delegates Sunday selected an author and former investment advisor as their presidential candidate--although Harry Browne readily admits that he’ll be lucky to get more than a million votes.

Meeting at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, the party delegates cast 493 of 878 votes in favor of Browne, who represented the party in a 1996 presidential bid and received nearly 500,000 votes.

The more hotly contested four-person race for the party’s vice presidential nominee remained a cliffhanger, though. Running late all day, delegates were unable to reach a majority decision before their convention room was scheduled to be set up for an evening banquet. Unlike the two major political parties, the Libertarians cast separate ballots for their presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Dressed in everything from severe business suits to tie-dyed T-shirts and kilts, delegates cast their votes late Sunday in the vice presidential runoff between former Bellflower Mayor Art Olivier and Laguna Beach resident Steve Kubby, a cancer patient and medical marijuana advocate who is awaiting trial on pot possession charges. Results of that balloting will not be announced until this morning.

As the presidential results were tallied, several delegates touted what they saw as public policy moves in the right direction--the passage of medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws--and denounced taxes and corrupt government officials.

Once Browne’s selection was locked up, the 1,200 or so attendees began to clap, stomp their feet and chant, “Har-ry, Har-ry.”

Later, an elated Browne acknowledged that he’ll have a tougher time selling his anti-income tax, anti-Social Security, anti-drug war message to the general voting public. And he knows he doesn’t possess the celebrity of Green Party nominee Ralph Nader or anticipated Reform Party contender Pat Buchanan.

Nonetheless, Brown, 67, expects “to scare the bejesus out of Republicans and Democrats” by getting a million votes. The Tennessee resident said he’s already raised $1.3 million for a national advertising campaign, and he asserts that a Libertarian could occupy the Oval Office within the decade.

“We have the most powerful message in the world: We want you to be free,” Browne said. “We want you to live your life as you want to live it--not as [presumptive Democrat and Republican nominees] Al Gore or George Bush want you to live it.”