CALIFORNIA'S LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE

FRESNO, Calif. (September 9, 1998 10:19 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com)

- -- In the back booth of a Blackstone Avenue coffee shop, Steve Kubby,
Libertarian Party candidate for governor, picked his way carefully through
a breakfast of vegetables, hash browns and apple juice -- and less
carefully through a minefield of political topics.

The death penalty? He's against it. Too many documented mistakes. Gun
control? Against that, too. A well-armed nation is the best protection
against crime. Three Strikes? "Feel-good legislation ... terribly
misapplied. A guy who steals a pizza ends up being a ward of the state for
the rest of his life."

Public schools? Can be fixed only by the "free market." Growth? Not to
worry: "As we move from the industrial age to the information age, just as
when we moved from the agricultural age to the industrial age, the
opportunity to feed, clothe, shelter and provide for people will be greatly
expanded."

Farmers? Ought to be growing hemp. The War on Drugs? A failure that "makes
millionaires out of thugs." Immigration policy? "Disgraceful ... We have
more people dying on the California-Mexico border than ever died on the
East German border." His solution?

"This is the one that scares people the most."

Scare me.

"An open border."

And so it went for almost two hours Tuesday, as the stylishly suited
Libertarian ran through his ideas, notions and assorted sound bites. The
51-year-old Kubby is a Lake Tahoe author, businessman and survivor of
adrenal cancer. He made his mark in California politics as a leader of the
Proposition 215 campaign for medicinal marijuana, a substance which, he
volunteers, he has taken for years. Inhales, too.

Kubby readily acknowledged that many of his positions would constitute
"political suicide" if expressed by his mainstream opponents, Gray Davis
and Dan Lungren. One advantage to being a Third Party candidate is that it
means never having to say the same old stuff, to be imprisoned by the same
old poll-driven politics.

Conversely, a so-called "fringe" candidate not deemed ready for prime time
debates -- or prime time donations -- often repeats the lesson of the
famous tree that fell in the forest, unheard. It's not easy, breaking
through the silence. Kubby told of arriving at a PTA convention in San
Diego only to learn that, because the main gubernatorial candidates had
canceled, he would not be allowed to address the assembled delegates.

So, Kubby said, he moved outdoors and started giving his speech on the
sidewalk, only to be interrupted by police. After a brief showdown, he
said, he won over the officer in charge and was allowed to continue. This
victory, however, would be diminished by a subsequent newspaper account,
which described the incident under the headline: "No Governor Candidates
Show for PTA Convention."

Raising for Kubby the question: And so what am I?

A case can be made, of course, for keeping the focus on candidates with
realistic chances of victory: One will be the next governor, so why not aim
for the most-informed decision possible? At the same time, though, it
invites self-fulfilling prophecy to declare that only candidates who can
win will receive coverage -- or be allowed to participate in the debates --
since only candidates who receive coverage -- or participate in debates --
can win.

What cannot be questioned is that Third Party candidates can make spritely
copy. They tend to be anchored in deeply cherished ideas -- in Kubby's
case, the Libertarian philosophy that less government is better government.
And often their opinions are delivered free of the professional varnish of
campaign consultants. Here was Kubby, for example, on the enforcement of
highway speed limits:

"Citizens have to face every day this gauntlet of Highway Patrol, who cut
in and out of traffic like sharks, looking for the weakest in the herd,
pulling them over and collecting taxes. It is literally highway robbery."

Now it is not necessary to agree with candidate Kubby on this or any other
points in order to concede that, in a famine of fresh political thought, he
does provide at least something to chew on: "Put me on a TV show or a
debate with the big money candidates," he growled, "and you are going to
get a real show. ... I'll hammer those guys." For the moment, however, it
was time for the Kubby campaign simply to roll on elsewhere.

The busboy had come to clean the table.

PETER H. KING writes for the Sacramento Bee in California. Write him at
P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, Calif. 95852.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan