New Hampshire's other candidates
The $1,000 entry fee for presidential candidates in New Hampshire allows more people to run, and more unique platforms to be heard. Jane Lindholm looks into what some of the smaller candidates have to say.
Presidential hopeful Vermin Supreme (left) poses with at a pancake-flipping contest in Manchester, New Hampshire. New Hampshire's low fee for potential candidates allows more people to run. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
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Doug Krizner: Voters in New Hampshire go to the polls today. There are 42 candidates for president on the ballot. The low cost of entry is one reason so many people sign up. From Vermont Public Radio, Jane Lindholm has more.
Jane Lindholm: It takes only $1,000 and a dream to run for president in New Hampshire.
David Mindich is a journalism professor at St. Michael's College in Vermont. He says New Hampshire's system gives more voices the chance to be heard.
David Mindich: Some of these ideas will make their way into the mainstream platforms. And it'll be healthy for democracy to hear more of a range of views.
And quite a range it is. Vermin Supreme's platform is mandatory tooth-brushing. Jack Shepard is running from Italy, because he faces first-degree arson charges in the U.S.
But there are plenty of viable messages. "Cap" Fendig is campaigning on a so-called "fair tax" that would eliminate our current income-tax system.
Cap Fendig: The fair tax, being a consumption tax, allows every citizen, and visitor, and illegal immigrant, and criminal to start paying their fair share for the federal government.
Fendig's hoping just being on the ticket in a high-profile state like New Hampshire will get him noticed, and maybe even win him a position in the new White House.
I'm Jane Lindholm for Marketplace.
