Three Senate candidates debate issues

By GARY D. ROBERTSON, Associated Press

WILMINGTON, N.C. U.S. Senate candidate Sean Haugh relishes his current job delivering pizzas because it brings joy to hungry families anticipating his arrival.

But the former Libertarian Party leader from Durham also enjoys take out more specifically taking out North Carolina from under a two-party system he says narrows messages voters receive and breeds candidates who must rely on outside groups for campaign funds and support to be successful.

"We have two corporate special-interest candidates, and there's me," Haugh said in an interview.

Haugh and other Libertarian leaders are hopeful his candidacy in November will mark the most successful showing ever for the party in a North Carolina statewide election.

Some polls have shown him receiving a percentage of the vote in the high single digits. Even getting 2 or 3 percent, like the Libertarian candidates for U.S. Senate in 2008 and 2010, could be enough to alter the outcome of the tight race between Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

"I am here to provide an alternative that other people really aren't hearing," Haugh said during his only television debate appearance in Wilmington. "I get to go all across the political spectrum, to all different kinds of audiences, with the exact same message stop all war and stop spending more money that we have."

The optimism reflects recent progress for North Carolina's only other certified state party, which preaches limited government and staying out of people's personal business, as well as low approval numbers for his two competitors.

For decades, the state Libertarian Party had to collect tens of thousands of signatures routinely to keep its candidates on the ballot because nominees for governor or president didn't receive the 10 percent of the vote needed to remain an official party. When they fell short, state officials converted registered Libertarian voters to unaffiliated.

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Libertarian Haugh could shift NC Senate race