JAFFREY — The Sixth Annual Live Free or Die Rally welcomed vendors, musicians and speakers from across the U.S. over the weekend, but due to the impending tropical storm organizers reported a 40-percent decrease in attendance from last year’s event.

Organizer Jean Coutu said he had 40 vendors signed up for the main rally at the town common but that about half cancelled Friday evening due in large part to the closing of bridges throughout New England. While last year’s rally brought in an estimated 1,200 people, this year Coutu said he guessed that there were about 800 or so in attendance.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul was also scheduled to speak, but had to catch an earlier flight to Iowa before the bad weather arrived, he said.

Despite the lower participation, Coutu said the rally still offered an important and unique opportunity for people of all ideologies and backgrounds to participate.

“Live Free or Die wakes up this part of the state to be proactive,” he said during in an interview at the main rally.

While Coutu said that there have been inaccurate perceptions of the rally in the past as “wild and crazy,” those notions have since faded, as more people took time to experience the rally for themselves.

“When the rally started it had a stigma and I could count the locals that would come out,” he said. “But New Hampshire has become active. We see more locals come out from behind cracked doors and say, “Hey, these are nice people.’”

Janie Zommick of New Ipswich said she made the decision to participate for the first time this year to encourage people to get informed and involved.

“The time has come where people have to figure out what they personally stand for,” Zommick said. “We don’t have to agree on everything — the whole point of the U.S. is to listen to what you don’t want to hear just as much as what you do.”

On Saturday morning presidential candidates Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer addressed the crowd on the town common about their run for office and the current economic challenges that America is facing.

Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, advocated small government, one that he said would empower the American people as individuals. “We are on the verge of a monetary collapse in this country,” he said.

If we fail to balance the federal budget and sufficient spending cuts aren’t made, he said the money that Americans have worked so hard to earn would no longer be worth anything.

Johnson said America needs to change its approach to war by taking a defensive as opposed to an offensive stance. Afghanistan harbored those who attacked, so we attacked back, Johnson said, but he added that the attack was 10 years ago and it was time for America to leave the country.

Angela Wiltz of Jaffrey, who attended the rally with her 9-year-old daughter, said she was glad to see a new breed of conservatives in the presidential race.

She agreed with Johnson that protecting the homeland is important, but stated that she does not support nation-building after a war.

This year, Wiltz is home-schooling her daughter and taking her to political events across the state to allow her to see the political process firsthand.

“I believe that kids have lost understanding of what our system was and I think it’s important that she not just be fed information,” Wiltz said.

Ken Caisee of Temple attended the rally for the second time and said he was doing so in support of the second amendment.

“I am a gun person,” Caisee said. “I am a sportsman, fisherman and hunter. It’s one of the things that I want to pass on to my kids.”

While Caisee said he agreed with aspects of Johnson’s speech, he felt that some of his statements were “a little over the top.”

“We definitely need a change from the change we just had, but there are alternative approaches” Caisee said.

Spending is out of control in Washington, but it’s in part because of too many overpaid government officials and the allocation of funds into “so-called studies that go nowhere,” he said.

In response to Johnson’s comments on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Caisee said America does need to get out but that an exit should not be immediate. “We went over there and messed them up and now we need to stay there until they can stand on their own,” he said.