U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, and his acolyte, erstwhile Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, are the best-known Texas politicians with libertarian leanings, but their notoriety has been a mixed blessing for the Libertarian Party, says Guy McLendon, Harris County Libertarian Party chair.

“Her campaign and Dr. Paul's campaign brought a lot of public awareness to the libertarian — small ‘l' libertarian — message, but the Texas Election Code puts constraints on what people could do,” McLendon said.

Libertarian Party candidates are selected by convention, not in a primary election. Local candidates were chosen at county conventions last Saturday, while the party's gubernatorial candidate will be nominated at the state convention in Austin on June 12. By state law, only voters who have not voted in the March 2010 Republican and Democratic primaries are permitted to vote in the Libertarian conventions.

“It sort of makes it difficult to get people to affiliate with us,” McLendon said.

Helped by Tea Party

For Patrick Dixon, an engineering consultant in Travis County and the state chair of the Libertarian Party, the Tea Party movement, which has a libertarian flavor to it, represents a glass-half-full scenario.

“It's been beneficial, because we started it,” he said. “By many measures, it's the most successful thing we've ever done. The real truth will come in November. If people vote their conscience, we should benefit.”

Paul, a libertarian Republican, sometimes is credited with launching the Tea Party movement in 2007 when he raised $6 million in a one-day, Web-based fund-raising effort on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Dixon noted that the Libertarian Party has been growing ever since and that its statewide budget has tripled during the past year. It's now up to $370,000.

It's growing in Harris County, as well, although not as fast as in Travis County and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. About 20 Harris County Libertarians met last Saturday at the Looscan Public Library in River Oaks to nominate 14 candidates for the November general election, including three candidates for Congress, one for the state Senate, nine for the state legislature and one justice of the peace.

In addition, local attorney Katherine Youngblood Glass is one of four Libertarian candidates running for governor, and David Smith is challenging U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Houston, for the 2nd Congressional District seat.

Smith, who opposes health care reform and cap-and-trade legislation and who believes in a smaller federal government, “is a total animal,” McLendon said. “He's knocked on tens of thousands of doors.”

The actual number is 55,000, said Smith, a 48-year-old computer programmer who got laid off in December.

“I'm getting a very good reception,” he said. “I've been chased out of three or four homes so far, but the other 54,996 have been receptive.”

Smith and his fellow Libertarians hold their Houston-area district convention today, also at the Looscan Library.

Handicapped by label

Although no Libertarian currently holds office in Harris County, the party is beginning to focus on nonpartisan offices, McLendon said, mainly because the Libertarian label has been a handicap for candidates.

“The demographics in Harris County are not as libertarian-leaning as they are around, say, Travis County,” he said.

Libertarian officeholders across Texas include party chairman Dixon, a city council member in Lago Vista, as well as city council members in Anna, Springtown, Quintana and Jarrell; a member of the San Antonio River Authority; the presiding judge of the Brownsville Municipal Court; and the chairman of the Carrollton Board of Adjustment.

Although Medina and Paul are libertarian Republicans, McLendon emphasized that Libertarians traditionally have no truck with either party.

“We're neither far right nor far left” he said. “We basically align ourselves with Ben Franklin, who believed that government should neither spend all your money nor tell you how to live your life.”

joe.holley@chron.com