MINNEAPOLIS — Adam Wood stood calmly in the basement hall of the Target Center for an hour and a half as he waited his turn in line to meet Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Wood, Lawrence senior, was ecstatic, but his demeanor showed no signs of the adrenaline flowing through his veins.

Wood, who coordinated Paul’s campaign on campus and in Douglas County, had campaigned for the former presidential candidate across the country and shook hands with him once, but this was the first time Wood would have one-on-one time with Paul.

Wood is here this week for Rally For the Republic — the counter convention that Paul created after he was denied a speech at the official convention.

Speakers at the Rally included former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and MSNBC correspondent Tucker Carlson. County music star Sara Evans also performed at the event.

Wood was allotted a five-minute interview with Paul because he knew campaign coordinators at the rally.

While in line to meet Paul, Wood was interviewed by several media outlets, including The Economist, all of them asking him how he felt about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Wood just laughed, though, brushing off his five minutes of fame.

“What am I going to do? Have a heart attack or something?” he said.

During the private interview, Wood asked Paul what people who did not want to vote for Sens. John McCain or Barack Obama could do to unify the third-party voters.

Wood said the alternative vote was divided among Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and Independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Paul said Wood was missing the point of these candidates’ campaigns. He told Wood to stop worrying about trying to consolidate the parties and focus on maximizing the number of people who were not voting for McCain or Obama.

“If they go in different directions, as far as political action, that’s not as bad as if they start accepting bad ideas,” Paul said.

Wood said Paul’s answers were helpful because they weren’t vague like a typical politician’s answer.

“When people ask him questions, he answers them. That’s what’s so crazy,” Wood said.

Wood said his meeting with Paul differed from his meeting with Barr hours before. He said Barr pointed him to his Midwest campaign coordinator instead of thanking him.

But Wood said he would still vote for Barr despite the generic politician treatment.

“I understand what he’s doing and that he’s shaking people’s hands,” Wood said. “You don’t vote for the person. You vote for the party.”

Wood said he thought he might have another chance to meet Paul in the future, but he probably would not work with the Paul campaign again because he felt the movement was not achieving anything.

Former KU student Eric Hyde accompanied Wood on his trip to Minnesota.

Wood and Hyde are best known at the University for their campaign in last spring’s Student Senate election. The two ran for student body president and vice president as part of the Students of Liberty coalition.

— - Edited by Lauren Keith