Eric Cooper, associate professor of psychology, declared his candidacy for governor of Iowa at a press conference Wednesday.

The conference was held in the community room of the Ames Public Library, where a crowd of about 10 attended. Cooper spoke for nearly 30 minutes on Libertarian philosophy and his hopes for the gubernatorial election.

Cooper said he was adamant that libertarian political philosophy is the intellectual continuation of Thomas Jefferson’s political ideas. Shortly after beginning the conference, Cooper donned a tri-cornered hat and futuristic sunglasses to symbolize the connection of the two ideologies: past and present.

“This is exactly the philosophy Thomas Jefferson had,” Cooper said before he and his running mate, Nick Weltha, put on their hats.

This is Cooper’s first run for the governor’s office. He has run for the state legislature five times previously, and he called his previous race “the most successful libertarian campaign in Iowa.”

Cooper explained libertarian philosophy as something that’s not crazy or remote, but based on the basic principles of the United States.

Cooper said Libertarian is the only party that truly believes in smaller government, whereas both major parties have expanded the government while in office.

Cooper described libertarianism’s core tenants thus: The government is the only institution allowed to use force, meaning the government should be responsible for stopping body crimes, like rape or robbery. The government should enforce contracts and should also create public goods, like lighthouses and parks, that have no incentive to be created in a free market.

Cooper said the government should take in only the money it needs to operate and citizens should be able to engage in any non-damaging behaviors they would like.

“It is the closest to the government of the United States in our history,” Cooper said.

Cooper joined the Libertarian Party in high school after reading a pamphlet that piqued his interest and Barry Goldwater’s book “Conscience of a Conservative.” He is now the faculty adviser of the ISU Libertarians and is an elected member of the Iowa Libertarian Party’s board.

“People don’t take us seriously, as they don’t hear about us in the news,” Cooper said.

Jacob Saltzman, senior in psychology, is assisting Cooper in his run for governor by collecting the 1,500 signatures necessary for Cooper to run on the ballot. Saltzman said Cooper is a very popular professor in the psychology department.

“Everyone in the department loves his courses,” Saltzman said.

Cooper said he is not naive and knows he will not win the election. His goal is to win 2 percent of the popular vote and gain major-party status for the Libertarian Party. He also hopes to pressure major parties to adopt some of his policies by showing their popularity with the public.

“If I had a dime for everyone in the press who told me I couldn’t win the election, I’d have about 17 dimes,” Cooper said at the press conference.

Cooper explained three central planks to his run for governor that he hopes to build interest in for the major parties.

Cooper promotes a free-market school system, attaching a certain equal amount of money to each child and allowing that money to be spent at any school the child would attend. Cooper said this free-market approach would encourage the strongest schools to flourish.

Cooper supports the legalization of marijuana and other drugs as a second major program for his run.

He said the Founding Fathers would be ashamed that the government is trying to control what substances a person chooses to put in his or her own body.

“Why don’t we try legalizing marijuana for two years and examine the viability of the program?” Cooper said of the issue.

The third plank of Cooper’s campaign is firework legalization. Cooper said setting off fireworks should not be considered an activity that needs government regulation.

Cooper concluded his presentation by saying Iowa was once a state with great numbers of immigrants because it was a place where people could move to be free, in behavior and from taxes.

He said he would reassert the 10th Amendment and that he believes reforms to the health care system should be in the form of market reforms. He also said insurance companies should be able to compete across state lines.

Cooper said he would leave climate change legislation up to the national government, although he supports cap-and-trade solutions at a national level because preventing pollution is preserving a public good.

He also said Obama’s election is not a major factor in the current election, except that those disenfranchised with Obama’s growing of government might be more apt to consider libertarian ideals.

David Olson, president of Iowa State’s Young Americans for Liberty and junior in economics, said he was a friend of Cooper.

Olson said he had worked with Cooper for several years and that they were politically like-minded.

Olson said he was supporting Cooper for governor because during Culver’s term as governor there has been a loss of basic liberties in Iowa. Olson said taxes have gone up, the smoking ban has been implemented and the legislation of these topics all contributed to a wrong direction for Iowa.

Jim Hutter, associate professor of political science, said there was no special history of third-party candidates enjoying success in Iowa elections.

“There are no third parties in Iowa, as none of them reach the consciousness of the voters,” Hutter said.

Hutter said Libertarians have run before and have always received negligible numbers of votes, usually having hardly any impact on elections.

He said third parties need an interesting cause and a figurehead candidate to enjoy any success, as with Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee in the last Republican election.

Both candidates, representing radical fiscal and religious conservatism respectively, gained some popularity, but failed to achieve many results due to a lack of finances.

Hutter said that in the end, the biggest difficulty with any third-party candidate is a lack of funds to reach the public.

Without campaign funds, the message will be lost come election time, he said, and more money is required to run a governor’s race than a legislative campaign.

“Eric Cooper is a party of one in this county,” Hutter said.

Hutter, who has run for office in Story County before and lost, said he knows from experience the difficulty of running a small campaign.

He said most support for Libertarian candidates comes either from anti-government protest voters or voters casting a ballot for an unknown name.

Hutter doubted Cooper would see success in his hopes to have Libertarian policy adopted by major parties.

“The notion that people will swing to libertarian ideas is offset by the fact that some of their ideas are just plain kooky,” Hutter said.

Few people will actually endorse the idea that something as dangerous as fireworks should be sold without restriction, he said.