PENNSYLVANIA Nader stays optimistic over state ballot
Many Nader volunteers getting signatures on petitions were homeless.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Ralph Nader's campaign is optimistic that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will rescue its bid to get Nader listed on the state's presidential ballot. Somewhat so, at least.
"I'm absolutely convinced that we will win this," said West Chester lawyer Samuel C. Stretton, the group's attorney. "But," he added, "I was wrong before."
Expect the unexpected from Nader's Pennsylvania campaign, which is as unorthodox as the Chevrolet Corvair was 40 years ago, when the consumer crusader was catapulted to notoriety by his book, "Unsafe at any Speed," that criticized the Corvair as an unsafe car.
The vehicle Nader had hoped would take him onto the Pennsylvania ballot -- a petition drive that ostensibly produced nearly twice the 25,697 signatures he needed -- has stalled in the face of a Commonwealth Court ruling that disqualified him even if all the signatures were valid.
Apparently, a large number weren't.
What lawyers contended
Lawyers who challenged Nader's petition on behalf of eight voters sympathetic to Democratic candidate John Kerry contended that all but about 10,000 of the 47,000 signatures were forged or flawed. Even Stretton acknowledged in court that, of about 1,400 signatures the campaign spot-checked, nearly three-fourths had problems that could result in their elimination.
Most of the signatures were gathered in Philadelphia by a contractor who promised volunteers, many of whom were homeless, as much as $1 for every signature they gathered.
But midway through making unprecedented plans for five simultaneous hearings in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to scrutinize Nader's signatures, the court aborted the potentially lengthy review.
Plucking from a previously obscure section of the challenge, a three-judge panel ruled Monday that Nader forfeited his right to run as an independent in Pennsylvania in May when he accepted the nomination of the national Reform Party in seven other states.
The decision is based on a law that is designed to prevent candidates who lose major-party primaries from running again as independent candidates in the general election.
Barred by law
The law bars anyone affiliated with a party from running as an independent in the same election cycle, though this is the first time it has been extended it to candidates' activities outside the state.
"I don't think anybody else has considered the application of that statute" previously, said Gregory Harvey, one of the lawyers who challenged Nader's petitions.
Democrats, anxious that Nader would drain liberal support from Kerry in the Nov. 2 election and give President Bush a leg up in a crucial swing state, crowed over their victory.
"It's time to put an end to this farce," said state House Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver.
Critics of the two-party system warned that the ruling will hurt alternative candidates who must cobble together support from multiple third parties to mount a national campaign.
"It's already a labyrinth that independents and third-party candidates have to go through to get on the ballot," said Pennsylvania Green Party spokesman Mike Morrill.
Stretton contends in his appeal that the decision violates Nader's constitutional guarantees of free association and equal protection under the law.
What happens if the Supreme Court overturns the decision is unclear. Stretton maintains that Nader will effectively be entitled to a berth on the ballot because there will not be enough time left to complete the examination of his petitions. Harvey says the signature review would have to go on.