Libertarian National Committee Press Secretary Richard Fields appeared on the “Freedom Works!” radio show with host Paul Molloy, broadcast on 1340 AM in Tampa, Fla., on Nov. 20.

They discussed Libertarian candidate Ron Bishop’s Alabama U.S. Senate race and the effect of allegations against his Republican opponent on the Republican Party, now scrambling to find another candidate. Fields explained that Bishop got in the race early, but as a write-in candidate, “well before it was cool for the Republicans to start looking for a write in candidate,” and why the state’s ballot-access requirements are arguably the most onerous in the nation.

From the interview:

Molloy: Tell us why [Bishop] had to be a write-in candidate?

Fields: Alabama has the most stringent ballot-access laws in the country. In order to get on the ballot in the first place, you have to get 3 percent of the vote total in a statewide election for statewide office. That’s the highest in the country. The next highest is 2 percent for ballot access by signatures.

And to retain ballot access, they’re way over the top. You have to get 20 percent of the vote in order to remain on the ballot, after you’ve done a ballot-access drive by petition. So it’s almost impossible. So the only choice—the only way anybody can get on the ballot—other than a Republican or Democrat—is as a write in.

Molloy: Alabama is just about the most conservative, if not the most conservative state, technically. Is Ron Bishop—conservatives tend to be libertarian in many ways.

Fields: Yes; he’s campaigning on balancing the federal budget, on free trade as the cornerstone of prosperity for the economy, on a noninterventionist foreign policy, which is Taft conservatism. He’s very strongly pro-second-amendment. He’s doing everything he can to hit that conservative base, to give them somebody they can vote for [who] doesn’t come with the constant negative news coverage.

Molloy: I would hope that he gets that publicity, Ron Bishop. I would think he would be a viable alternative.

The election will be held on December 12.

Click here to listen to the interview at the “Freedom Works!” web site.

(The segment begins at 10:02 and runs approximately 15 minutes.)

Visit the Ron Bishop for U.S. Senate campaign website here.

Click here to learn more about the Libertarian Party’s ballot-access efforts.