JOHNSON MOVING FORWARD AFTER WINNING FIRST LIBERTARIAN PRIMARY

As a candidate for the U.S. Senate on the Libertarian ticket, Bill Johnson admits that some people attend his campaign events just to see what a Libertarian looks like.

But as voters become more disgruntled over the way government and the two-party system work, Johnson thinks they will be looking to third parties like his as alternatives.

"We are trying to offer a real alternative because other parties are not doing it. Things don't change," said Johnson, a 34-year old contractor from Springfield. He made a campaign stop in Cape Girardeau Wednesday.

One of his stops was in the University Center at Southeast Missouri State University, where only a handful of students turned out to hear his views.

Johnson believes the strong dissatisfaction with government, and a feeling that government cannot continue piling up huge deficits much longer, are the reasons why the revelations that he has not paid state or federal income taxes are not working against him.

Johnson has not filed an income tax return for 14 years.

"The reason I don't file is I don't believe we have representative government anymore," explained Johnson.

His failure to file tax returns was reported several weeks ago, and so far he has not been confronted by authorities. If he is, Johnson said he would go to jail as a matter of principle rather than file tax returns.

He contends that most people support his position. "The income tax issue is not a negative," he said.

He does pay property taxes and sales taxes because they are used primarily by local governments.

Making his first bid for public office, Johnson made history in August when he won the state's first contested Libertarian primary for federal office. Only 2,200 votes were cast.

There are more Libertarian candidates running in Missouri this year than in the past because the candidate for governor received more than 2 percent of votes cast in the 1992 election. That success gave Libertarian candidates the right to file for office instead of having to seek signatures on petitions to file.

This year there are a record 50 Libertarian candidates running for office across Missouri.

Johnson predicts that better candidates now will run for office under the Libertarian label because of the change.

How he runs in 1994 may very well determine whether future Libertarian candidates can spend their time campaigning, or getting petitions signed.

Johnson concedes he has an uphill fight this year against Republican John Ashcroft and Democrat Alan Wheat, but believes he will surprise a lot of people if voters at least will listen to what he has to say. They may be surprised by Libertarian views that call for smaller government, term limits, line-item veto, a balanced budget amendment and the right to have guns.

"Most people realize our political process is broken. I tell people they need to vote for a candidate that closely represents what you believe," said Johnson. "The biggest thing I have to do is convince people that I am a viable alternative."