Libertarian Rex Bell elbows his way into Indiana governor's race

That his name was even included in the poll at all was its own kind of victory.

“Winning is not your number one goal when you’re Libertarian running for governor of Indiana,” he said.

In the past dozen years, Bell, 64, has run unsuccessfully for seven local and state offices. He’s convinced that his efforts, and those of Libertarians nationally, are resonating more with voters dissatisfied with the political system.

And he sees promise in his numbers. When he ran for state representative in 2010, in a tightly contested three-way race in his rural home district east of Indianapolis, he won 21 percent of the vote. It was the most any Libertarian has won in a state race.

Bell is also convinced that those mid-May numbers, from a Bellwether Research poll with a 4 percent error of margin, are soft.

A series of recent national polls show presumptive Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson taking about 10 percent of the vote in a race against Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

It’s a sign, he says, of a roiling discontent among voters with the presidential choices — a discontent that he hopes has coattails long enough to pull up his numbers come November.

“I don’t know that we’re in a perfect storm yet with voter discontent,” he said. “But we’re in a pretty good storm.”

The size of the storm and how it affects state and national races remain to be seen, said Ball State University political scientist Joe Losco. Libertarians won’t win those races, but they can create havoc by pulling away voters in tight races.

In 2012, Republican Gov. Mike Pence narrowly defeated Democrat John Gregg by less than 3 percentage points. In the same election, Libertarian candidate Rupert Boneham won 4 percent of the vote.

Losco said there was no reliable ex-it polling at the time to know for certain if Boneham pulled votes from Gregg, but he said it’s possible.

“Third-party candidates can play the role of spoiler,” he said.

Bell bristles at the descriptor, saying he is tired of Republicans and Democrats accusing him of stealing their votes.

“The votes belong to the voters,” he said.

He expects to hear that sentiment affirmed this weekend as he gathers with about 1,000 other Libertarians at the party’s national convention in Florida. Delegates will pick a slate of national candidates and vote on a national platform on policy.

Bell, who’s owned a small contracting company in Hagerstown for 42 years, said his political philosophy has long matched the party’s slogan of “Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom.” He became a confirmed believer — and adopted the Libertarian label — after watching coverage of the national party convention in 2000.

That’s when he heard Libertarian presidential candidate and free-market advocate Harry Brown espouse “total individual liberty” and argue that no one is more qualified to run your life than you.

“I thought, ‘Here’s a whole political party as crazy as I am,’” he said.

For Bell, one of the biggest challenges is explaining what a Libertarian even is. Like Republicans, they favor a smaller role for government. Like Democrats, they want government to stay away from legislating on social issues. Bell said there’s room for argument in between. “Someone once said, ‘There may be two Libertarians somewhere that agree on everything, but I’m not one of them,’” he said.

Bell has started blogging on his website about his views on issues that have become part of the debate in the Indiana gubernatorial race.

He injects humor by employing the character Stinky Wilmont, an old school buddy, to help explain his views.

On the issue of same-sex marriage, for example, he likens it to soccer: It’s not something he understands, but he’s OK if others want to partake.

Bell is convinced that more people would be persuaded to vote him if they really understood what the party represents.