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Harens, a St. Paul resident, is the only Minnesotan presidential candidate. He knows he is not going to win the presidential election. He is only on one state ballot -- Minnesota’s -- and he won’t win there, either.

But Harens, like any other candidate, has a vision for the future of America, a long-term effort that he hopes will uproot traditional politics and raise his Christian Freedom Party beliefs to the tongue tips of supporters nationwide.

“Sorry if I’m not wearing a shirt or tie,” Harens offered by way of introduction. “It’s not my thing.”
Clad in blue jeans, a black sweatshirt and a backwards cap, he admits that even his style of dress is unconventional.

Harens and his party collected in July the 2000 signatures necessary -- and an additional 1000 -- to secure his name on the Minnesota ballot in a little over two weeks of effort.

"I had no idea what to expect," he said. "It is not often [voters] get a theoretical candidate."
Harens said based on his previous experiences with government and politics, he felt driven to create his own political party.

He was elected in 1981 as a Democrat into the Minnesota House at the age of 25, but left after a single term, feeling abandoned because of his pro-life views.

He described former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura as a “vapid idiot” and said he fooled around in the late '90s with the Independence Party, but could never determine exactly what the party stood for.

The Republican Party, Harens said, is short-sighted. They are destroying the public education system and the environment. But he is not content with leftist ideology, either.

"Democrats will not vote against their own bureaucracy," he said.

Harens' party views stresses environmentalism and voter empowerment. While in the state legislature, he passed the first wind-to-energy bill and in 1990, he worked as the special events director in Los Angeles for Earth Day. Utilizing sources of alternative energy is high on his list.

"Oil is going to run out," he said."Wind energy is not our panacea. We need to find an alternative source, whatever it takes. We have to make this system more efficient."

Harens also proposed the idea of a national waterline, which he described as a regulatory mechanism that will prevent daily waste of millions of gallons of water.

Harens believes that voting needs to be more accessible, and he plans on using the Internet as a resource. Although Howard Dean recently used the Internet to a high degree of success while campaigning, Harens said the strength of the Internet has not yet been used as a political force. He wants to hold online caucuses and local referendums where citizens vote on top state legislative issues.

He is outspoken on the issue of abortion. He is pro-life -- "How can we kill the unborn of our species?" he asked -- but at the same time says he is "pro-progressive" and seems to struggle with issues of gender freedom.

"I have a difficult time taking women's rights away from them, knowing they have been oppressed by men for ten thousand years," he said. "Maybe when men stop being assholes, we will decide [on abortion rights]."

The party's long-term plans, Harens said, include running for U.S. Senate seats in 2006 and 2008 and eventually making a serious run for the presidency.

For now, he has short-term work to do. With just weeks before the election, he has been campaigning across Minnesota, mostly in smaller towns and at college campuses.

And he has been hindered by at least one small struggle that larger parties and candidates could never conceive of.

“[My Internet service] just shut me down for sending out too many e-mails with the same subject line,” he said. “They think I’m spamming people.”

But Harens is upbeat about his chances come Nov. 2.

"I am here to make a statement, and I am here to make an impact, because this race is going to be close. If it comes down to 500 votes, and we get 1000, someone will be screaming their bloody head off."