Maymin is challenging incumbent Republican Christopher Shays, Democrat Diane Farrell and Green Party candidate Richard Z. Duffee.

"There is no real difference between Shays and Farrell everyone knew immediately after 2004 we were going to be seeing a rematch this year and it's a false rematch. It's the choice between one big government candidate and another big government candidate. They both raise taxes, they both increase spending, they both increase debt. They both feel that they are better at deciding how you should spend your money, your life and your time than you are. They feel if there is a problem, government will solve it. But I disagree and I think the majority of people in America disagree," Maymin said during a meeting with the editorial board of Brooks Community Newspapers.

According to Maymin, the role of the American government should be limited to "the pursuit of justice and national defense." Everything else, he said, is up to the American people, who should be given the freedom to "solve their own problems, determine their own destiny and future."

Although a third-party candidate has yet to hold federal office in this country, Maymin said, because 40 percent of the 4th District is made up of unaffiliated voters change may be in the offing. "From what we've seen, from what we heard from people, people

are disappointed with the two-party system. They feel that there

is no difference between Democrats and Republicans."

"I think people are looking for a change and there is no alternative," he said. "It's just to provide an alternative. I think people really want to send a message to Congress, to get rid of these people who want to do nothing but control your life."

If the 4th District were to elect him, he said, it would "send a big message to Congress that if you don't advocate freedom now and individuals the right to live their own lives, you're going to be voted out of office very quickly."

Part of being a Libertarian, Maymin said, "is to drastically reduce the size of government, the invasive amount of government." He said he feels strongly about giving the power and money back to the people.

"Fairfield County is the number two metropolitan area in America by median income, so obviously the income taxes people pay here are the greatest. These taxes, which it's absurd that you have to pay an income tax, are wrong and it should not happen," he said.

Maymin proposes replacing all federal and state taxes with a national retail sales tax, which he said would be solely consumer-based with rebates for those living below the poverty line. The consumer-based rebates would work as a "prebate" to Americans where money would be distributed in advance. "April 15 would be just another day and you can live your life freely," he said.

Another way of giving power or choice back to the people, Maymin said, was by making education as local as possible. "It should be the parents' choice how to educate their children. It should be [the] more local you get, the better the choices you're going to have and the better education your child is going to have."

"People in different communities have different needs, they may prefer different textbooks for different curricula, they may even prefer different starting times, they may prefer going all year round instead of nine months there should be more choice. How do you get that? You remove the shackles that the government regulations place on you," he said.

As a start, Maymin said he supports the idea of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and giving the money used for that department back to the taxpayers "so they could spend it on the schools they choose to spend it on and improve it the way they want and to make the choices as local as possible."

Besides taxes and education, when it comes to national issues, Maymin said he doesn't really have a political platform. "My priorities are not determined by me, they are determined by the people. By having a Libertarian-principled position, my views on any topic are consistent and determined based on first principles, which are that stealing is wrong, you own yourself, the government should be smaller and individual liberties should be greater."

"It's not that I have a particular issue that I would like to push through but I can address what people tell me are their top priorities, which are, for example, Iraq, illegal aliens, the government's position on regulations of the economy, enormous taxes, enormous spending and enormous debt," he said.

Maymin, who supports an unconditional pullout of American troops in Iraq by July 4, 2007, said, "Setting a deadline gets the Iraqi people motivated and the Iraqi government motivated."

"Setting a deadline tells [the Iraqi government], 'if you can't get this figured out by July 4, on July 5 you're going to have a really tough situation and you may lose your power.' That is the proper motivation to try to get things done and it removes the motivation from insurgents or the people who are considering joining the insurgency movement."

Since the issue of setting a deadline is a heated debate throughout Congress, the Senate and at American dinner tables, Maymin was asked how he proposed gaining congressional backing if elected. The answer, he said, was to speak the truth. "When you speak the truth and you have logic and it makes sense, and it's from first principles of justice and freedom, you can have an impact. Shays, he spent 1,245 days since the war started, he went to Iraq 14 times and yet it was only four days after I issued my position paper calling for a deadline and explaining these reasons, laying out why it's makes sense, for the first time he called for a timetable."

He added, "So you can have an impact and I've already had an impact with the incumbent congressman. And it's not because Phil Maymin is saying it, it's because it's the truth. And when you speak the truth, eventually someone listens."

When asked how he felt on the issue of immigration, Maymin, who immigrated to this country when he was 5 to escape communist Russia, said, "I would seal the borders."

"You have to close your doors, you have to know who is coming in, it's your property and you have to defend it," he said. Maymin has a simple solution for illegal aliens, "You deport them."

There are two options, he said, with deportation: big government solutions or the Libertarian solution. "The right thing to do," Maymin said, is to change the immigration laws and to offer incentives to those who enter this country illegally to go back to their homeland and attempt to enter again legally. If illegal aliens do not leave this country voluntarily, Maymin said he supported immediate deportation that includes a lifelong ban from the United States.

Besides wishing to see the government giving power and choice back to its people, Maymin said he also decided to run for Congress because of his 8-month-old daughter. "I want her to live in a free country. We emigrated from Russia to the freest country on Earth, it's a shining light to the rest of the world and I want her to live in a place where she doesn't have to ask permission to start a company, all she needs is an idea, a dream, hard work and she can achieve anything."

When asked if he felt he had a chance of beating the political heavy hitters, such as Shays and Farrell, Maymin said "That's up for the voters to decide, but do I believe it? Absolutely. I'm not going to take options away from the voters."

Erin Lynch is a staff reporter for the Fairfield Citizen-News, one of the Brooks Community Newspapers.