CONCORD, N.H. — It wasn’t long ago that Rep. Ron Paul was an anti-war asterisk in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Then his campaign raised a record $6 million in a single day.
Now the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman is looking like a possible spoiler, with an eclectic, tech-savvy following and an astounding $18 million in donations raised in less than three months.
“It’s sort of gotten out of control. I don’t know what to do about it,” he told one crowd in mock frustration.
At the current rate, it is some of his better-known rivals who might have cause for concern. Polls give no indication that Paul can win any primaries or caucuses. But his appeal to independents, in particular, could make a difference in contests in New Hampshire, which votes on Jan. 8, or in Michigan, where a primary is scheduled one week later.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for one, hopes to appeal to independents in those states, both of which he won when he first sought the White House eight years ago. Paul’s literature says he never voted to raise taxes, a point that could get him a look from backers of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Other contenders who have been losing ground slowly in statewide New Hampshire surveys — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, for example — would be hard-pressed to explain it if they wind up trailing a man who says the United States needs a more humble foreign policy in an age of terrorism.
The attention is going to a 72-year-old physician who pursued an interest in free-market economics and a career in politics.
Addressing a breakfast audience recently, he was as scathing in his denunciation of President Bush’s stewardship of international relations as he was of Bush’s economic policy.
“I want the foreign policy of our founding fathers. No entangling relationships,” he said. That means trade with Cuba, ending penalties against Iran and — above all — getting U.S. troops out of Iraq.
“All this death and destruction. We blow up their bridges, we’re taxed for that. Then we’re taxed to rebuild their bridges and our own bridges are falling down,” he said.
Current polls in New Hampshire show Paul in single digits. But Fergus Cullen, the New Hampshire Republican Party chairman, said, “I believe there is more support than public-opinion polls are picking up.”
