Big government frustrates Idaho, fuels Libertarian interest

MOSCOW, Idaho -- Dylon Starry, a senior at University of Idaho here, used to be a Republican, but on Nov. 4, he'll vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president.

Barr's message of less government and more individual rights fits the self-described "recovering Republican" like a new suit. The Democrats and Republicans spend too much of the public's money, he says. "That just brings us down, and Bob Barr would curb that significantly," Starry, 22, says in a chat at a coffee shop just off campus.

Across Idaho, the Iraq war and the Wall Street bailout fuel discontent with the major parties and a renewed willingness to consider Libertarian ideas, says Rob Oates, chairman of the Idaho Libertarian Party.

Oates, a Caldwell resident, sees an opportunity for Barr, a former Georgia congressman with a higher profile than any previous Libertarian candidate, to capture 3%, 4% or even 5% of the presidential vote in Idaho. In 2004, Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik won less than 1%.

"This party is going places," Starry says.

A good showing would help local Libertarian candidates and set the stage for better results at the top of the ticket in the future, Oates says.

Barr has his work cut out for him in Idaho. George W. Bush stomped John Kerry 68%-30% in 2004 and Al Gore 67%-28% in 2000. Idaho last voted for a Democrat for president in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson won the state.

"I'm a hard-core Republican," says retired steamfitter-welder Vernon West, 66, standing on the front porch of his home in northeastern Idaho's Mullan. "There's no way in good conscience I could vote for Bob Barr."

A sign in the former Marine's front yard reads, "I'm a bitter gun owner. I vote," a reference to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's remark about some Americans who are bitter about the economy and cling to religion and guns. West is voting for Republican Sen. John McCain.

McCain improved his standing with the state's Republicans when he picked a more conservative running mate in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, says Gary Moncrief, a political science professor at Boise State University. Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, and graduated from the University of Idaho.

However, some in overwhelmingly Republican Idaho are not satisfied with the Republicans. In Worley in Kootenai County, a paint-scrawled message on an outhouse reads, "George Bush Presidential Library."

Historically, the anti-big-government message of the Libertarians has found fertile ground in Idaho, where the federal government owns and manages more than 60% of the land within the state's forest-rich borders, Moncrief says.

"They don't always win, but they can garner up to 10% of the vote in some cases, at least in state legislative races," he says.

In 1992, independent Ross Perot won 130,395 votes, 70,000 votes shy of the 202,645 Republican George H.W. Bush got in winning the state.

This year, libertarian-leaning Ron Paul's 24% in the Republican primary May 27 "even surprised people in Idaho," Moncrief says. McCain got 70%.

"I have been a Republican my entire life, and we just felt like the Republican Party doesn't stand for less-intrusive government," says Harry McKinster, 45, a stock trader from Nampa, 20 miles west of Boise.

He's voting for Barr.

He began thinking about switching parties after President Bush turned airport security over to federal employees following 9/11. Private industry could have done the job, McKinster says.

Barr is on the ballot in 44 states, including Idaho, and hopes to reach 49, says spokesman Andrew Davis, who predicts the party's best finish since it was formed in 1971.

In a Zogby International poll Sept. 9-12, Barr got 5.2% support in Ohio, 4.3% in Colorado, 3.9% in Michigan and 2.9% in Nevada in a four-way race with Obama, McCain and independent Ralph Nader. Idaho wasn't surveyed. In the most recent Reuters/Zogby nationwide telephone poll, conducted Sept. 11-13, Barr received 1.3% support in a four-way race.

Barr expects to finish strong in western states such as Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and polls well enough in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Florida to be a "kingmaker," Davis says. "This year, the Libertarian Party is expecting to do better than it has since it was founded in 1971," he says.

Barr supports enhanced privacy, more home schooling, fewer taxes and stronger private property rights. He calls the taking of land by government through eminent domain, without compelling justification, "a serious attack on fundamental liberty." He is opposed to the Iraq war, entitlement programs and a large federal bureaucracy. Policies on same-sex marriage, he says, should be left to the states.

Those positions fit Starry, who describes himself as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. He will graduate in December and is looking for work as a police officer.

The federal government should not be telling Americans, gay or straight, who they can marry, and the major parties should not be "spending, spending and spending," he says. The war in Iraq is also a sore spot.

"McCain wants to see this war out to the end," Starry says, "and it's just frustrating to me."

Puckett reports for the Great FallsTribune in Montana