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Jim Duensing, state Libertarian Party chairman, thinks Nye County is fertile ground for the party, after 27 residents held an organizing convention at Wulfy's Restaurant Saturday morning.

He also thinks the country may be ripe for a third party like the Libertarians in two years.

Duensing's father, Ray Duensing Sr., was elected chairman of the Nye County Libertarian Party. The vice chairman position was left vacant. Beth Duensing was elected secretary-treasurer, leaving the possibility the county Libertarian Party could be a family affair just as the Independent American Party is dominated by the Hanson family.

James Libertarian Burns, of Beatty, who had his middle name changed and once ran for president, was elected the northern representative, while Lee Baldwin will represent southern Nye County, the area from Crystal south.

Duensing, who is running for the 1st Congressional District against Shelly Berkley in the 2010 election, said more Libertarians showed up in Nye County than the 12 that showed up for a Clark County organizing convention.

"I was here a couple weeks ago when they were talking about banning guns in public buildings. I was emboldened by the spirit of people in that room who were standing up for their liberty," Duensing said.

Nevada has more of a Libertarian streak than many other states, with its long history of legalized gambling and legal prostitution in counties under 400,000 population. Pahrump in Nye County attracts Las Vegas residents interested in patronizing the legal brothels, buying fireworks or perhaps firing a submachine gun and pursuing firearms training at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute.

However, there are only 177 registered Libertarians on the voter's registration list for Nye County among 7,798 Libertarians statewide. The Libertarians presidential candidate in 2008, Bob Barr, won 118 votes in Nye County, two-thirds of a percent of the total.

"It's my goal to run a full slate of Libertarian candidates in every single election. Now we haven't met it yet, but we're building in that direction," Duensing said.

That's an understatement, as few Libertarians have been on the ballot. The most successful example he cited was James Dan, a Libertarian who came close to winning the Assembly District 28 race in November 2000 in North Las Vegas, taking 990 votes, of over 45 percent of the total.

Duensing noted there was a good showing in Nye County for Ron Paul in the 2008 election. The Texas congressman running as a Republican last year was a Libertarian candidate for president in 1988.

"We were for Ron Paul before it was cool," Duensing said.

Libertarians will hold their state convention March 28-29 in Las Vegas, conducting business during the Sunday, March 29, session at the Clark County Library. Duensing said affiliates of the party have been formed in Carson City, Washoe and Douglas counties and are being organized in Elko County and possibly Eureka County.

The Nye County Libertarian Party bylaws mostly address parliamentary issues like electing the executive committee and holding conventions. It's only mention of a philosophy is a preamble which reads:

"As Libertarians we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others."

The statement of principles affirms a philosophy that liberty shall prevail.

"Our main differences with the Republicans would be in unnecessary wars of empire overseas, building huge, military bases to conquer and control virtual countries out of an irrational fear and obviously what Bush has done in the last eight years economically wasn't Libertarian, it wasn't even Reaganesque," Duensing said.

Duensing isn't convinced the tide has turned with the election of Barack Obama, with many Americans now demanding government intervention to stem the economic downturn.

"The last presidential election, I think, turned on, was Bush a good president? And they were able to paint McCain fairly successfully as a continuation of Bush," Duensing said. "I don't think it was that affirmative of Obama."

The decline in the stock market was because Wall Street was insulated from accountability, he said.

"All the people who already had golden parachutes are the ones who got those bailout funds and they're the ones who bought for and paid for their Democratic and Republican representatives who are giving them trillions of dollars, and they're turning around to our Congress and saying, 'We're not telling you what we're doing with them,'" Duensing said.

Instead of a bailout, Duensing said Libertarian 2008 vice-presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root of Henderson suggested a one-year vacation from the income tax.

Duensing ran last year against Berkley. When asked how many votes he received, he said only, "I just remember it was less than I wanted."

The Nevada Secretary of State's Web site lists Duensing as receiving 4,528 votes, in the Congressional District 1 race, 1.98 percent of the total, to Berkley's 154,860, or 67.65 percent.