INDIANAPOLIS – Rex Bell grew up in rural Indiana, working on a small family dairy farm alongside his parents and seven siblings.

There was no question that they were Republicans.

"You were raised that way and didn’t think about it," said Bell, 64, of Hagerstown.

In 2000, he was watching TV and found a Libertarian convention in California where then-presidential candidate Harry Browne spoke.

"He got it," Bell said of Browne, and he started studying libertarianism and getting involved in the Indiana Libertarian Party.

He has run unsuccessfully as a Libertarian for a county seat, for a state representative district and for Congress. He notes that the party’s candidates have won local elections all around the state, though they haven’t broken through in a top-tier race.

"We’re hoping this year, with the dissatisfaction with the major parties, we can grow that," Bell said.

The small-business owner, who started a contracting firm the 1970s, acknowledges it’s an uphill battle, but it’s easier because he believes in the principles of the party.

"When people hear the message and get the message, they are more receptive," Bell said. "People are inundated with the two-party system. We have to convince them there is a third party and that they are capable of running their own lives and making personal decisions."

Libertarians generally believe in less government in all facets of life, from business regulations to gambling oversight. "They don’t need the government involved in everything," Bell said. "There is so much freedom that we are passing up because we turn it over to the government."

Bell doesn’t proactively raise money because he doesn’t want to be beholden to Hoosiers for favors.

His primary policy position is to eliminate property taxes – which he believes would attract companies and provide competitive jobs and wages. He would replace the revenue with a sales/consumption tax.

Such a move would also eliminate the need for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which hands out incentives to lure businesses or expansions here, he said.

"The taxpayers are giving one business an advantage over another – just picking winners and losers," Bell said.

He doesn’t want to enact laws. Instead, he would eliminate a lot of possession prohibitions – from drugs to pornography – so long as there are consenting adults and no individuals are harmed.

He also is concerned that sometimes state policies pass consequences on to local government. An example cited was the property tax caps that were put in place about a decade ago, which simply reduced the revenue local units could collect but didn’t affect state coffers at all.

nkelly@jg.net