arla Howell, candidate for US Senate, exudes a polite, earnest intensity as she slowly works the living room of a comfortable home in one of Cape Cod's most comfortable communities. Her straight hair neatly cut, her trim frame clothed in a power blue suit, Howell seems closer to Martha Stewart than a fire-breathing political zealot.
But this is the Libertarian challenger to Edward M. Kennedy. And over the quiet conversation, the handshakes, and the homemade meatloaf sandwiches this rainy afternoon, Howell is delivering a pitch that might make mainstream voters check their hearing: No regulations on guns. No federal income taxes. No federal involvement in education or health care. No prohibitions on drugs.
It's also a pitch that so far has raised nearly $700,000, swamping the $20,000 collected by Republican candidate Jack E. Robinson III but far behind the $4.2 million in Kennedy's coffers.
With such a hefty bank account, and judging by her pace on the hustings, Howell has more than a little evidence to buttress the Libertarians' assertion that they are running the only serious Senate campaign in Massachusetts.
Even Republicans are showing interest, Howell says, figuring that a vote for a Libertarian form of smaller government is better than a futile gesture for the floundering Robinson effort.
Howell's supporters include Barbara Anderson, director of Citizens for Limited Taxation; multibillionaire Richard J. Egan, founder of Hopkinton-based EMC Corp.; civil liberties lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate; and a lengthy list of activists pushing to repeal federal laws against marijuana and firearms.
Howell is in the fourth week of radio ads, has put her message on movie screens, and has visited gun owners in sportsmen's clubs across the state. She has made nearly 150 campaign appearances, including visits to Republican town committees in places like Cambridge and Canton.
The stump speech carries a simple message, elevating individual freedom over government regulation. All drugs should be legalized, she says.
''Would Senator Ted Kennedy be a better man if his father had gone to prison for bootlegging, racketeering, and other alcohol-prohibition crimes,'' Howell, 45, asks in a news release.
The answer, according to Howell, is no. And that goes for thousands of inmates sitting in federal prisons today because of drug-related crimes, she adds.
Such is the scope of Howell's carpet-bombing plan for the US government that 90 percent of its bureaucracy would be dismantled under a Libertarian administration. But as radical as Howell's program is, a small but growing base of support for the Libertarian ideal has taken hold here.
Registered Libertarians now number 13,793 in the state, compared with 3,065 in 1996. Twenty-one Libertarians will appear on the Nov. 2 ballot for federal and state office, compared with only three in 1996. This year, 17 publicly elected Libertarians hold office in Massachusetts; in 1996, the number was one.
''Small government is beautiful,'' Howell proclaims with a smile.
Others agree, but some of Howell's most notable supporters are not willing to trumpet their backing for a candidate so far from the political mainstream. Egan, the billionaire businessman who has been a big fund-raiser for Governor Paul Cellucci and other Republicans, did not return a telephone call to discuss his support for Howell.
And Howell's Cape Cod host last week, a Republican town official, repeatedly asked that his name not be used in this story.
Silverglate was more candid. A longtime Democrat who left the party about 15 years ago and registered as a Libertarian in 1998, said he is impressed by Howell's courage.
''She showed up at the marijuana legalization shindig,'' Silverglate said, referring to the recent Boston Common rally attended by 40,000 people. ''I suspect that one or two of the other Senate candidates believe that it's long past time to legalize marijuana. But not one of them ever would have the guts to show up at such a rally. For that alone, she would get my vote.''
Howell is not shy, either, about railing against the Boston ''big media,'' which she believes are conspiring to undermine her campaign. Over lunch in Hyannis, the first question Howell asked a Globe reporter was whether the newspaper wanted the profile to be a ''hatchet job.''
Howell, a Wayland resident, began studying the Libertarian position in the early 1990s because of frustration with federal red tape that she says was choking the health-care industry. She consulted for high-tech, management, and health care companies before devoting herself to a full-time campaign.
''I saw how regulations were depriving us of better care and dignified care. And I said this is wrong,'' Howell recounts.
Under Libertarian direction, Howell says, the price of health care would plummet without federal regulation or involvement. She also is a zealous advocate for gun rights, arguing across the state that any weapon used for self-defense should be free of regulation.
''Korean-Americans in the Los Angeles riots defended themselves with AK-47s. Theirs were the only stores left standing after the riots,'' says Howell, explaining her stance that even assault weapons should be unregulated.
She also believes American business should be unshackled from government regulation. When asked whether any restrictions are necessary to protect consumers and workers, such as the antitrust laws of a century ago, Howell says: ''The Industrial Revolution was misunderstood.'' Many workers were better off in factories than farms, she contends.
The small but growing support for the Libertarian cause in Massachusetts may be due to the state's large number of intellectuals and techno-wizards, with whom the laissez-faire philosophy seems to resonate, said Charles Manning, a Republican media strategist.
''Libertarians have no solutions to anything, but it sounds good,'' Manning said. ''They'll say, `Oh sure, let's legalize all drugs.' But if they're asked, `What if somebody uses heroin,' they'll say, `Oh well, we won't worry about that.'''
The void left by Robinson's candidacy, Manning said, has given Howell an opportunity to make her mark in a Massachusetts political world that increasingly rewards personality over party.
Howell has never held elective office, but she did garner 102,198 votes, or 5.3 percent of the total, in an unsuccessful bid to unseat State Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci in 1998. The Republican candidate, Michael T. Duffy, attracted 531,363 votes.
That showing energized the Libertarians to take on a senator they perceive to be the Darth Vader of a character-sapping, community-eroding, big-government blueprint for America.
Kennedy is responsible for the tax-wasting abomination that is the Big Dig, Howell says. And Kennedy's 38-year incumbency, she says, owes its longevity to a Massachusetts establishment that has grown fat on pork and bacon that he has slopped home from Washington.
For Howell, this establishment is afraid of her return-to-the-Constitution vision for the country. And this fear, she believes, is evidenced by Kennedy's silence on her challenge to debate.
Kennedy has not responded to the request, and will not make a decision until after the Senate adjourns Friday. ''The campaign has not ruled anything out or in,'' Kennedy spokesman Will Keyser said.
For her part, Howell has ruled something in. No matter what the voters decide, Howell says, the crusade will continue: ''I'll be working, in one form or another, to bring about small government in the United States.''
