Ex-Bellflower Mayor Savors Libertarian Bid

Art Olivier’s 5-year-old daughter put him on the spot Monday. “Daddy,” she asked, “are you the vice president yet?”

“Not yet,” Olivier replied.

To be honest, he could have added, “And probably not ever.” Still, Olivier, an aerospace engineer and former mayor of Bellflower, can truthfully claim to be a vice presidential candidate--a heartbeat, as it were, from losing the presidency.

Olivier was nominated in a cliffhanger Monday by the Libertarian Party, which was holding its presidential nominating convention in Anaheim. Harry Browne, an author and former investment advisor, had already been chosen as the party’s presidential candidate; the vice presidential vote was thrown into a runoff in which Olivier defeated Laguna Beach resident Steve Kubby.

He has no illusions. The nomination is not, he acknowledges, a ticket to the West Wing. But Olivier hopes the campaign will give him a chance to spread the word about the Libertarian Party, which believes that the government which governs least, governs best.

“The long-term goal is, you know, freedom and prosperity for all of humanity,” Olivier said in a telephone interview. “But short term, in this campaign, I want everybody to know that we are the only party that will bring the government back to its constitutional limits. . . . Because I really believe that the majority of people do want smaller government.”

As a councilman in Bellflower from 1994 to 1998, including a one-year term as mayor, Olivier tried to practice that philosophy, and scored some successes.

Joining with a conservative Republican colleague, Ruth Gilson, he was able to push through privatization programs that put some municipal services in private hands. He also wound up on the losing end of a lot of votes in which he tried to eliminate programs and taxes.

Gilson said she and Olivier were political soul mates on fiscal policy, but she parted company with him when he talked about legalizing drugs, a prominent part of the Libertarian platform.

Olivier said drug policy is one of many areas that set him apart from Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

He supports the elimination of the income tax; believes that U.S. foreign policy should be governed by an avoidance of “entangling alliances,” including any foreign aid; says the government should get out of the health care business; and argues that the solution to “the Ponzi Social Security scheme” is to make Social Security voluntary.

The Libertarian Party hopes to have $8 million to get its message across, and plans to begin buying television time soon, Olivier said.

Being a former mayor of Bellflower, a city of 66,000 in southern Los Angeles County, is not the sort of qualification that might turn heads at the Republican or Democratic convention. But it worked for Olivier, 42, whose party has elected only a few candidates to any office anywhere.