CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Here’s a plea you won’t hear in too many presidential debates: “Don’t vote for me.”

But that was Robert Linnell’s blunt message Tuesday when he and 16 other lesser-known candidates participated in a forum sponsored by the New Hampshire Political Library.

“I’m 81 years old. I tell people, ‘Don’t vote for me, you’ll waste your vote,”‘ the retired college professor said in his opening remarks. “That’s probably true for rest of the candidates here today.”

Linnell, a Democrat from Lebanon, N.H., said his campaign evolved from his habit of penning op-ed pieces for area newspapers.

“I’ve decided to be a candidate because I want my voice to be heard,” he said. “I just want people to listen to me, disagree with me, argue with me.”

New Hampshire voters will choose among 37 candidates for president and two for vice president when they go to the polls Jan. 27.

Though some have suggested that debates featuring the nine major candidates have been unwieldy because of the large size of the field, the 17 longshots were grateful for the eight minutes each was allotted at the microphone at the New Hampshire Historical Society.

“Someone ask me about the war, I’m all ready,” said Blake Ashby, a Republican from St. Louis who accused the Bush administration of abandoning his party’s principles.

“Government spending doesn’t hurt any less because there’s a Republican signing the checks,” he said.

Red Jahncke, a Republican from Greenwich, Conn., paid his $1,000 filing fee to run for vice president and urged voters to view his candidacy as a chance to express disagreement with Bush’s foreign policy. He urged voters to pick him and the presidential candidate they prefer.

“By doing so, you will magnify the power of your vote,” he said.

Katherine Bateman, a former teacher leading a project to get teenagers interested in politics and to promote their issues, already has faced one important vote.

Participants in her group’s online forum, www.teenvoting2004.com, decided which party she should choose. Though some shrewd strategists argued that she’d stand out better on the less-crowded Republican ballot, she ended up a Democrat by one vote.

“My goal for this educational endeavor is for teens to realize they are not disenfranchised,” Bateman, of Chicago, said. “If they in fact are listened to, I will have won, and will have they.”

Panelist Rich Ashooh praised her efforts, but jokingly reminded her that surprise upsets are much a part of New Hampshire primary lore.

“I understand you’re running as an educational exercise, but this is New Hampshire,” he said. “You could win.”

Other candidates touted their top issues:

– Robert Haines of Manchester, N.H., said he supports school vouchers, but said his wife wrote the education policy included in a policy booklet he gave panelists. “I embrace some of the things she says in there.”

– Democrat Harry Braun of Phoenix pitched his proposal to make America energy independent within five years through wind ships that would convert sea water into hydrogen fuel. “I would in that five-year period shut down every nuclear plan in this country,” he pledged.

– Gerry Dokka, a Democrat from Atlanta, said he would put former Sen. George Mitchell and former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in charge of Middle East peace negotiations and would hire 25,000 new CIA agents to infiltrate terrorist organizations worldwide.

– Republican vice presidential candidate Flora Bleckner of Hewlett, N.Y., said she would focus on getting U.S. troops out of Iraq. “My first act would be to initiate America getting back to America,” she said.

– Edward O’Donnell, a Democrat from Lebanon, N.H., called for banning all private ownership of guns, guaranteeing every American a job that pays around $30,000 and a “foreign policy that feeds, clothes and educates the third-world poor.”

– Dick Bosa, former mayor of Berlin, N.H., has made the loss of manufacturing jobs the focus of his campaign. “Right now, corporations are moving and we’re giving them tax deductions to move,” said Bosa, who now lives in Portsmouth.

– Republican John Buchanan of Miami said he wants to highlight the unanswered questions about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the “deceit” that led to the war in Iraq and Bush’s “betrayal” of his campaign promises. The former journalist implored the media to “Help the American people learn the truth.”

– Democrat Willie Felix Carter of Fort Worth, Texas, said “protection of divine providence” would be his top priority, along with helping the homeless and unemployed.

– Democrat Lyndon Larouche of Round Hill, Va., is making his 8th appearance in the New Hampshire primary. He said he wants to return the United States to its history as a producer society instead of a consumer society “living off the rest of the world.”

– Millie Howard, a Republican from New Richmond, Ohio, advocates amending the U.S. Constitution to, among other things, state that life begins at conception. “If we don’t get that right, we’re not going to get anything right,” she said.

– Frustration about unfair world trade policies got Republican John Rigazio of Barrington, N.H., into the race. He said he would support increasing employee and employer contributions to Social Security to ensure its solvency.

– Democrat Fern Penna of Kingston, N.Y., said he would increase funding for education, repeal the Patriot Act and provide more help to senior citizens. In his second term, he would push for a manned mission to Mars.

– Calling himself a “liberal Republican defending liberty,” Michael Callis of Conway, N.H., said his central message is hope. While other candidates weren’t shy about asking for campaign donations, he urged his supporters to give to soup kitchens or libraries instead.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought it was hopeless,” he said. “People are listening.”

AP-ES-01-06-04 1944EST