WOMAN HEADS LIBERTARIAN TICKET

It took 16 votes to give Loretta Nall the Libertarian Party's backing
for governor. It's going to take 40,996 more registered voters to get
her on the November general election ballot.

Nall, who lives in Alexander City, is in step with Republican and
Democratic candidates in some ways, and in others, not so much. She
supports a lottery and wants to reduce the prison population.

But Nall, who is appealing a 2004 misdemeanor drug possession
conviction, also is in favor of legalizing marijuana.

"Making the drugs illegal hasn't stopped anybody from getting drugs,"
she said Tuesday at her nomination announcement on the Capitol steps.
Her campaign for governor is backed by the U.S. Marijuana Party that
she founded.

Nall said changing drug laws could lead to reducing Alabama's
28,000-plus prison population, a population that will cost the
General Fund $319 million next year.

Despite opposition in her own small ranks -- six out of 22 people
cast votes against her at the party's convention Saturday -- Nall
says her "chances are as good as anybody else's."

She believes the government has been "stupid on crime." Other things
she's against: the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act and Jesus in government.

"I think we need to get the government out of education as much as
possible," she said, pushing for tax breaks and vouchers for people
who send their kids to private schools.

In addition to Nall, Dick Coffee of Mobile won the party's nomination
for U.S. House, District 1. Dick Clark of Auburn will run for state
House District 79 in the general election and William McLaurine is a
candidate for Auburn city mayor.

None of the Libertarian candidates are being challenged by other
party members in the June primary.