Libertarian a potential spoiler for McCain

Former Ga. congressman could draw conservatives

By Susan Milligan

Globe Staff / May 13, 2008

WASHINGTON - Brushing aside pleas to keep a fractured Republican Party united, former GOP congressman Bob Barr announced yesterday he would seek the Libertarian nomination for president, threatening to deprive Republican John McCain of critical votes in key battleground states that the GOP needs to hold on to the White House.

Barr, a six-term conservative congressman who has split with his erstwhile party on civil liberties and privacy issues, could deny McCain victories in states including Nevada, Colorado, and perhaps Barr's home state of Georgia. He has the potential to become for the presumptive GOP nominee what Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was to Democrat Al Gore in 2000, some political analysts said.

"In the 2008 environment, the landscape is pretty bad for the GOP anyway. John McCain does not need any new impediments to the presidency, and Bob Barr is another impediment," said Steven Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Minnesota.

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