The miniscule Harvard right frequently obscured by the lush foliage of campus and state liberalism, has shown signs recently of making its first inroads in Massachusetts politics.

In the fourth congressional district, a 30 year old libertarian Harvard graduate student running as a Nixon supporter has thrown one of the state's leading liberals the scare of his political life by turning a "hopeless" primary campaign for Congress into a serious challenge.

In eastern Massachusetts, a Harvard sophomore who helped found the New Right Coalition 18 months ago reports that local paid membership has risen above 150 and that the group plans this fall to escalate demonstrations and postering which last Spring inflamed Cambridge tempers over rent control.

At a news conference at Logan Airport last week a Harvard Business School student accompanied by long-haired students and a short-shorn philosophy professor, announced the birth of a Massachusetts Libertarian Party which espouses a number of leftist-sounding causes and is running John Hospers chairman of the Philosophy Department of the University of Southern California, as its presidential candidate.

Despite the sectarianism and vague conflicts in approach these groups and individuals profess a shared belief in Ayn Randian laissez faire capitalism. And while the climate of Massachusetts appears lethal to their species of political flora the success of similar groups and individuals elsewhere suggests that the new growth may become may become a hardy fixture in ideological forests.

The most significant and professional of the three Massachusetts campaigns belongs to Avl Nelson a doctoral candidate in Physics Running in the Republican primary for Robert F. Drinan's congressional seat. Nelson has jumped from complete obscurity to what appears to be a photo finish in the four-way primary on Tuesday.

His chief rival. Ripon society member and state Representative Martin Linsky (R-Brookline), was conceded the race by most observers last Spring due to an established base and close ties to Governor Fransis W. Sargent.

Nelson's leap in the polls--he was a close second to Linsky in a poll published by the Boston globe last month--has been attributed to impressive personal campaigning, the services of a top Nixon political strategist, and a determined media effort. Volunteer support has come largely from libertarian Harvard and MIT students, and members of the Brookline synagogue headed by his father. Rabbi Zev Nelson.

The Nelson campaign literature has emphasized the theme that government paternalism and coercion has corroded rights and diminished the lot of productive individuals.

"I propose to begin by attacking the oversize bureaucracy, the swellen budgets of our regulatory agencies, our exorbitant welfare expenditures, and go on from there," his brochure reads. "The primary function of government is to protect and guarantee the basic rights which belong to all human beings."

Those rights, according to Nelson, are expressed in the concept that "each individual must have the security to pursue his own goals and values, in peace and without fear."

Such positions have been seldom heard in the overwhelmingly liberal Fourth, which resoundingly endorsed the campaigns of McCarthy and McGovern and gave Humphrey's 1968 presidential race landslide approval. What makes the Nelson showing more surprising still is the handicap of strong competition for the conservative" vote.

Of the four candidates, only Linsky has a solid record as liberal. Former Congressman Laurence Curtis, who has outspent all his rivals, holds the Conservative endorsement, while State Rep, Robert A. Belmonte (R-Framingham) carries a reputation for showy patriotism and "fiscal responsibility."

The race, according to a Boston Globe article published September 10 could go any way. But the article did not exactly downplay Nelson' chances--it ran under the headline "Three have the background, one has the impact." The one was Nelson.

The New Right Coalition, founded in early 1971 by eight members of Young Americans for Freedom disgruntled with the organization's conservatism, has seen a similarly surprising rise.