[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Convictions Intact, Nader Soldiers On

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Convictions Intact, Nader Soldiers On

August 2, 2004
 By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE 



 

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 1 - To Ralph Nader, the
Democratic convention in Boston was a hollow charade that
made Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential
nominee, seem more like President Bush than ever. He said
it gave him no reason to drop out of the race, even if he
costs Mr. Kerry the election in November, as many believe
he cost Al Gore in 2000. 

"This isn't unity," Mr. Nader scoffed in an interview here
on Saturday, referring to the message from the Democratic
convention. "This is repressed conformity in order to
create the show." 

He called the Democrats a "decadent" party and, in a
reference to Mr. Gore's populist war cry in 2000, accused
Mr. Gore of "taking my language away from me" and "costing
me more votes than I cost him." Mr. Kerry, he noted, voted
for the war in Iraq, would not put a deadline on
withdrawing American troops, voted for the Patriot Act and,
he said, "won't touch the bloated, corrupt military
budget." 

So Mr. Nader, who does not concede that he has little
chance of winning the presidency, is preparing for battles
ahead - for ballot access in most states (he is on the
ballot in six states so far, including Florida), for
credentials to the Republican convention this month (he was
denied credentials to the Democratic convention), and for a
seat at the table in the fall debates, which requires a
standing of at least 15 percent in national polls. 

Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Research Center for
the People and the Press, said that Mr. Nader, who won 2.7
percent of the vote in 2000, was polling at about 3 percent
in most national polls now but could spell trouble for Mr.
Kerry in some swing states. 

While Mr. Nader digs in his heels, the Democrats are trying
to sideline him. The party has enlisted Howard Dean, the
former Vermont governor, who has declared an "extraordinary
emergency" to stomp out Nader votes. And some former
associates of Mr. Nader are organizing an extensive,
well-financed national campaign against him. Organizers
include Toby Moffett, a former congressman from Connecticut
and onetime "Nader Raider," who lost a close race for the
Senate in 1982 after his former boss endorsed his opponent.


Mr. Moffett, now a lobbyist in Washington, worked against
Mr. Nader in six states in 2000, an informal effort that he
now calls amateurish. With that experience under his belt,
he said, "we're vowing not to let it happen again." 

Mr. Moffett and others from labor and feminist
organizations spent their time at the Democratic convention
coordinating six or eight anti-Nader groups. Calling
themselves United Progressives for Victory, they are
raising money through an independent political committee
known as a 527, named for the section of the I.R.S. code
that governs it, and are working with other 527's that are
already identifying sympathetic voters. (By law, such
committees can raise unlimited amounts of money but cannot
coordinate with the Kerry campaign.) 

The group is armed with a poll conducted by Stanley
Greenberg, who was President Bill Clinton's pollster. The
group includes Roy Neel, a former Gore associate who worked
for Mr. Dean and is now preparing the computer model for
finding the 2.8 million people who voted for Mr. Nader in
2000 and might vote for him again. 

Mr. Moffett said there was no chance that Mr. Nader would
drop out, so the only way to stop him from throwing the
election to Mr. Bush is to discourage his supporters. 

Mr. Nader's determination to stay in the contest was
evident on Friday night in Los Angeles, when Michael Moore,
the filmmaker, who backed Mr. Nader in 2000, appeared with
him on the HBO program "Real Time with Bill Maher." Mr.
Moore and Mr. Maher dropped to their knees to beg Mr. Nader
to drop out, with the audience cheering them on. 

Mr. Nader was unmoved, saying only, "We're going to help
defeat George W. Bush" and dashing off the set at his first
opportunity. 

Nader supporters, Mr. Greenberg's polling shows, are
generally older and angrier than other voters. They are
fiercely against globalization and corporate dominance, and
they are largely indifferent to social issues like abortion
and gay marriage. 

They are also hard to find, and the Moffett group is
debating how to track them down and shape and deliver a
message that will reach them. 

Two early clues from the polling: when Nader supporters
learned that Mr. Nader had accepted help and money from
Republicans to get on the ballots in various states, they
dropped away. And one of the few public figures who has
credibility with Nader backers is former President Jimmy
Carter, who is perceived as not compromised by or profiting
from the political system. So some of the group's officials
say they have discussed redeploying Mr. Carter, who they
say has indicated a willingness to help. 

The briefings in Boston drew dozens of donors, lawyers and
activists, including Arianna Huffington, the columnist. "My
main message is that when your house is on fire, it's not
time to talk about remodeling," said Ms. Huffington, a
former Republican who is now supporting Mr. Kerry. "First
you put the fire out." 

Mr. Moffett said that he and Elizabeth Holtzman, the former
congresswoman from New York, were coordinating with
election lawyers in several states to challenge Mr. Nader's
ballot petitions. Their strategy, he said, is to try to
undercut Mr. Nader not only in swing states where he could
make a difference but in safe states, "to drain him of
resources and force him to spend his time and money." 

To Mr. Nader, these challenges are all part of a "dirty
tricks" campaign, which is becoming a major theme for him
as he speaks around the country. At a news conference in
Los Angeles on Friday, Mr. Nader asked Mr. Kerry, through
the cameras, to "call off your dogs." 

Mr. Nader and Peter Camejo, his running mate, met here on
Saturday with three dozen volunteers who have until Friday
to gather 153,035 signatures to get Mr. Nader on the
California ballot. As in other states, paid professionals
are doing most of the petitioning, but volunteers are
seeking extra signatures as a cushion against challenges. 

In a low-key chat, Mr. Nader advised the volunteers exactly
how to present his case when seeking signatures. 

"The question you ask people is, 'Do you think California
voters who want to vote for Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo
should be able to?' " he told them. "Most people are fair
enough that they will sign the petition to get us on the
ballot." 

Mr. Nader has raised $1.5 million, tens of thousands of it
from Republicans, who also collected the signatures to get
him on the ballot in Michigan. But he shrugged off the
significance of their help, saying, "We had nothing to do
with it." 

Mr. Camejo said last month that he was disturbed about
donations from Republicans and told The San Francisco
Chronicle that Mr. Nader should reject their money. But on
Saturday, he said in an interview that he welcomed such
help. 

"I wish Republicans who support us would send us some
donations," Mr. Camejo said. "In polls, 25 percent of our
vote is from Republicans and only 5 percent of our money."
Mr. Nader and Mr. Camejo and the volunteers met at the
Green Party headquarters here, a small storefront in a
relatively low-rent area of this prosperous beach town. The
Green Party backed Mr. Nader in 2000, but rejected him this
year. Still, some overlap remains and when the Nader
volunteers had nowhere else to meet, the Green Party turned
over its offices. 

Pam Brown, 59, a retired state highway worker who was here
to gather signatures, said she backed Mr. Nader because she
resented the Democrats trying to suppress him. 

"My vote is my vote and I'll go where I want to with it,"
she said. "If they don't keep that door open for a third
party, some day the ballot is going to say 'yes or no' and
it's going to be one name, and that's my fear if we limit
our choice now." 

Ms. Brown said that people had yelled at her because of her
Nader bumper stickers. "The hate campaign that the
Democrats have against Nader has created a lot of
hostility," she said, but she said she tried to ignore it. 

In the interview, Mr. Nader was asked why he persisted at
such risk to his legacy. 

"Who cares about the legacy?" he responded. "Are they going
to tear out seat belts from cars? We're looking to the
future." 

He said that Democrats "should be happy that someone is
going all over the country taking apart their opponent, but
instead, they are employing dirty tricks to keep us off the
ballot." 

And what of those who accuse him of running simply to feed
his own ego? 

"For 40 years, I've been giving members of Congress credit
for things that I could take credit for," he said. "Ego? I
don't know the meaning of the term." 

He gestured to the cramped storage room where he sat for
the interview. "Isn't this fun?" he asked sarcastically. "I
invite anyone to travel with me and see how much fun it is,
from their point of view." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/politics/campaign/02nader.html?ex=1092466714&ei=1&en=7a32c5f7ef10c270


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