American Notes: Primaries

All it takes to enter New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary on Feb. 18 is nerve and a $1,000 filing fee. Among the record 62 candidates who have rushed in where Mario Cuomo feared to tread:

Lenora Fulani. Thanks to her money-raising abilities, the 41-year-old developmental psychologist and leader of the left-wing New Alliance Party will receive more than $600,000 in federal matching funds, a sum exceeded only by Bush and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin.

Pat Paulsen. The television comedian, a veteran of several lighthearted campaigns, will run again in '92, despite having filed for personal bankruptcy.

Lyndon LaRouche. The wild-eyed libertarian, who has also run for the White House before, sent in his form from the federal prison in Alexandria, Va., where he is serving a 15-year sentence for mail fraud.

Tom Laughlin. He played the anti-Establishment movie hero Billy Jack, and now the jowly actor wants to karate-kick his way into the White House on a platform of nuclear disarmament and middle-class tax cuts.

Harold Stassen. No field would be complete without the 84-year-old former Minnesota Governor who made his first presidential bid in 1944.