Los Angeles Times

Libertarians hoping California supervisor can move party from the fringes into the mainstream

LOS ANGELES - The Libertarian Party's reputation for attracting exotics is infamous in political circles.

There's the candidate in San Francisco who has run for multiple local offices under the name Starchild. The 2016 presidential hopeful who wanted marijuana taxes to fund "galactic expansion for generations." The aspirant with purple-blue skin borne from his constant consumption of colloidal silver, a putative cure for cancer.

But recently elected Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Hewitt just might be the strangest Libertarian of them all: a politician capable of winning elections who could move the party from the fringes into the mainstream.

In November's election, the 65-year-old grandfather and two-term Calimesa council member beat former Republican Assemblyman Russ Bogh, despite being outspent 2 to 1. Now, Hewitt is in a position in which his party's gospel - lower taxes, slashed pensions, fewer regulations and more privatization - could get put into practice in Riverside County, which has a $5.6 billion budget and

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