Nader opts to run despite pleas to stay out

Some argue his 2000 campaign stole key votes from Democrats.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
WASHINGTON -- For months, Democrats, longtime friends and former supporters of Ralph Nader's have urged him not to make another run for president.
Ignoring appeals from many of his own admirers, Nader declared Sunday he would run for president as an independent but vehemently denied suggestions he could derail the Democratic Party's effort to defeat President Bush.
The longtime consumer advocate, whose third-party candidacy has been blamed for tipping the 2000 election to Bush, accused Democrats and Republicans of being consumed by corporate interests. By running again, he said, he hoped to break a "two-party duopoly that is converging more and more."
"They may be different in their mind; they may be different in their attention; they may be different in their rhetoric," Nader said. "But in the actual performance, these corporate interests and their political allies are taking America down."
"Washington is corporate-occupied territory," Nader said. "The two parties are ferociously competing to see who is going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters."
Details to come
Nader, who turns 70 this week, was to lay out his campaign themes -- including providing universal health care, reforming campaign finance, fighting poverty and addressing environmental concerns -- at a press conference today in Washington before campaigning in Texas later this week.
"It's a question between both parties flunking. One with a D-, the Republicans, one with a D+, the Democrats, and it's time to change the equation and bring millions of American people into the political arena," Nader said on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he made his announcement Sunday.
Several party leaders, including national chairman Terry McAuliffe, had personally pleaded with Nader not to run.
"He's had a whole distinguished career fighting for working families, and I would hate to see part of his legacy being that he got us eight years of George Bush," McAuliffe said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Even old friends like liberal Vermont Rep. Bernie Sanders, the only independent in the House, called Nader's decision "counterproductive," predicting "virtually the entire progressive movement is not going to be supportive of Nader."
A generation ago, Nader was the darling of liberal crusaders, championing the mandatory use of seat belts and scores of other consumer issues. Although his work had once endeared him to party activists, Democratic leaders had few kind words about Nader on Sunday.
"It's about him; it's about his ego," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson contended. "It's about his vanity and not about a movement."
The struggle ahead
Nader, whose Green Party candidacy received about 2.7 percent of the vote four years ago, faces new challenges running as an independent. He will have to fight to be included on the ballot, state by state, and must raise money without an established political party.
Ballot access experts say an independent needs a total of about 700,000 signatures to get on the ballot in all 50 states, a prospect Nader likened to "climbing a cliff with a slippery rope."
But he is undaunted, saying he is confident he can collect more than the $8 million he raised in 2000 using the same Internet fund-raising strategies former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean employed before dropping out of the race. As always, he will rely on small contributions and refuse money from corporations and political action committees.
Democratic officials issued a statement Sunday saying Nader has promised McAuliffe he will not criticize the Democratic nominee, but rather focus his candidacy against the Bush administration.
Nader acknowledged the pledge but said it does not mean he will refrain from criticizing Democrats if they attack him. "I'm not going to avoid responding," he said.
Narrowing election
With the 2000 presidential race in mind, Democratic strategists think Nader's presence in a few states could affect a close election.
Democrats think many of Nader's 2,878,157 ballots otherwise might have gone to Al Gore, including 97,488 in Florida and 22,198 in New Hampshire. Gore lost both states by narrow margins in an election that was so close it ultimately was decided by a split Supreme Court decision.
When asked if he was getting into the race to be a spoiler, Nader bristled, saying: "A spoiler is a contemptuous term, as if anybody who dares to challenge the two-party system is a spoiler, and we've got to fight that."
Candidates' responses
The Bush campaign, which is preparing to step up its re-election effort today with a campaign-style speech by the president in Washington and television ads to follow next week, did not comment on Nader's announcement. The chairman of the Republican National Committee, though, said Bush would win regardless of who was in the race.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, said Sunday that he intended to reach out to voters who may be intrigued by Nader. He rejected the notion there were few differences between the political parties.
"I think it was pretty clear to most Americans that the difference was night and day," Kerry told reporters while campaigning in Atlanta. "I intend to speak to all Americans. If people want to beat George Bush badly and they understand what's at stake here, they'll see that I am speaking to concerns that Ralph Nader and other people have."
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who is chasing Kerry in the fight for the party's presidential nomination, suggested his candidacy would offer more appeal to Nader's followers.
"It's important for the Democrats," Edwards said, "to have somebody at the top of the ticket who will be appealing to some of the voters that Ralph Nader might attract."