LIBERTARIANS NAME PRESIDENTIAL PICK

ANAHEIM -- More than a thousand Libertarians gathered at the party's
national convention Sunday to nominate Harry Browne, their 1996 candidate
for president, to run again in 2000.

The 67-year-old investment banker from Nashville, Tenn., acknowledged he
has little chance of winning the presidency.

Browne said he hoped his campaign would reinvigorate what was formerly the
nation's top third party.

``We're the only political party that's offering to set you free,'' Browne
said.

``It's the most powerful political message in the world,'' he said.

Officials with the Libertarian Party, which advocates individual liberties
over expansive and expensive government programs, claims about 30,000
dues-paying members.

It also identifies itself as the biggest third-party movement in the United
States.

However, the party has lacked the star power of the Reform Party and the
Green Party in recent years.

Browne finished fifth in 1996, behind Reform Party candidate Ross Perot and
Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, garnering less than 1 percent of the
national vote.

He has proposed a 12-step program that would eliminate income taxes, Social
Security, the war on drugs and federal welfare.

Competing against Browne were Don Gorman of Deerfield, N.H., a former
four-term New Hampshire state legislator; Barry Hess, a salesman from
Phoenix; David Hollist, a charter bus driver from Alta Loma; and Jacob
Hornberger, the president of the Future of Freedom Foundation, a
libertarian think tank in Fairfax, Va.

The nominee for vice president was expected to be announced later Sunday.

Among the candidates for the vice presidential nomination was Steve Kubby
of Squaw Valley, the Libertarians' 1998 candidate for governor of California.

Kubby, a backer of the medical marijuana law that Californians passed in
1996, ran fourth in the governor's race but made headlines last year when
he and his wife were arrested and charged with possessing drugs for sale
after authorities found 300 marijuana plants in their home.

The case has not yet gone to trial.

Many delegates at the convention, which was held at an Anaheim hotel, were
optimistic about their chances for strengthening the movement because of
the increasing popularity of third-party movements.

Some were even jubilant during the nominations, donning patriotic costumes
such as tri-cornered hats and headdresses patterned in stars and stripes.