Posted on 06/26/2004 1:14:16 PM PDT by workerbee
They're back.
Sporting anticorporate buttons, peace bandannas and tie-dyed shirts, the members of the Green Party of the United States - whose support of a Ralph Nader candidacy four years ago many believe cost Democrats the White House in 2000 - are in the midst of another national convention.
This time, they are openly and passionately split about whether to endorse Mr. Nader and campaign enthusiastically against both President Bush and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, or nominate another candidate who will not directly attack the Democratic nominee in crucial swing states.
"It is an honest difference of opinion about what to do in the 2004 election cycle," said David Cobb, a Green activist from Texas who is seeking his party's presidential nomination and goes into Saturday's nomination vote with the most delegates. "Because we have a major problem, and that is George W. Bush. He's a huge problem. Bush needs to be out."
Normally, the internal disputes of a relatively small third party would be of little concern in the midst of a sprawling national election. But with indications that this year's tally could prove just as tight as that in 2000, the degree to which swing voters side with the Greens and other political parties may well determine the outcome in some states.
The Green Party members themselves know the stakes. A forum for the presidential candidates on Thursday night - Mr. Nader was not there - turned into a shouting match between supporters of each side.
And many Green supporters said that they knew that many Americans regarded them as the fringiest of the fringe, and that they were eager to shed the party's spoiler image.
"We know that many see us as very young and not to be taken seriously," said Juscha Robinson, head of the party's national campaign committee. "But the best way to be taken seriously is to continue to build the party. The dispute here is about what is the best way of doing that."
Mr. Cobb said that, if nominated, he would campaign vigorously for all Green candidates in the 40 states that he does not consider critical to the outcome of the presidential race.
But in those other 10 states he identified as battlegrounds, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, Mr. Cobb said, he would ask Greens to vote their conscience when it came to president. To Mr. Nader's supporters, that is tantamount to telling party members to vote for Mr. Kerry.
"The battle here is not between Nader and Cobb," said Peter M. Camejo, a Green activist from California whom Mr. Nader recently named as his running mate. "It is between Nader and Kerry. The Greens who want to vote for Kerry are supporting Cobb. And we can't let that happen, because Kerry is against all of the values of the Green Party."
Mr. Nader ran as the Green nominee in 1996 and 2000, but this year he seeks only the party's endorsement - saying he will combine it with those of other groups, like the Reform Party, to create a hybrid independent movement. This does not sit well with some Green delegates, who want a candidate of their own.
Also, Mr. Nader has been noticeably absent from this convention. Instead, he has been represented by Mr. Camejo and championed by dozens of enthusiastic supporters, including one other presidential candidate, Lorna Salzman, an environmentalist from New York.
"Why is there this hatred for Nader?" Ms. Salzman asked as she handed out pamphlets. "Here is someone who is trying to grow the movement, to attract people outside the Green Party. This is bad?"
Mr. Camejo was noticeably harder on Mr. Kerry this week when speaking before Green audiences than Mr. Nader has been when speaking before other groups. Indeed, Mr. Camejo argued that Democrats and Republicans merely represented different wings of a single national party beholden to corporate interests.
Mr. Nader, by contrast, has called Mr. Kerry "statesmanlike" and told some audiences that they should attend Nader rallies only to scare the Democrats - though he has rejected calls not to campaign in swing states.
Mr. Cobb, who has made an issue of Mr. Nader's absence, said, "I think it's going to cost him the endorsement."
Kevin Zeese, a Nader campaign spokesman, said Mr. Nader was not in Milwaukee because he did not want to dominate the proceedings.
Mr. Zeese said Mr. Nader might yet address the gathering, perhaps by telephone or satellite link.
At the forum on Thursday night, both sides pointed to the same enemy, American corporations, which they said were polluting and exploiting the planet with the connivance of both major political parties.
Mr. Cobb insisted that he did not support Mr. Kerry and agreed that Democrats were beholden to corporate interests. But he called the prospect of a second Bush term too onerous. "It's true that the differences between George Bush and John Kerry are incremental," he said. "But they are not inconsequential."
Exactly how many votes will be needed for the nomination will not be known until Saturday when it is clear how many delegates are in attendance. Mr. Cobb said he expected it would take about 400 votes to win, and he was confident of reaching that number, perhaps on the first ballot. He has 240 committed delegates; the Nader-Camejo ticket has 179 .
The Green Party is accredited for 23 state ballots in November, and drives are under way that should raise that number to 30 or more by the summer's end, said Brent McMillan, the party's political director.
But there are real questions, Mr. McMillan said, about whether a candidate who is merely endorsed - like Mr. Nader - would be allowed onto all the ballots. Election laws vary, he said, and in most cases the decision would be up to state election officials.
Complaints Filed Against Nader
WASHINGTON (AP) - A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Ralph Nader on Friday, saying the independent presidential candidate is violating federal campaign laws by accepting office space and telephone service from a public charity he created.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington alleges that Nader’s campaign is renting valuable space at below-market prices from Citizen Works, an activist group that supports progressive causes.
The complaint also says Citizen Works and the Nader campaign share a common receptionist and several telephone lines.
The watchdog group also filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that Citizen Works is violating its status as a charitable organization by benefiting the Nader campaign. The IRS complaint asks the agency to enjoin Citizen Works from offering any further assistance to the campaign.
”Ralph Nader seems to think that because he founded Citizen Works, he can use the organization as he sees fit,” said Melanie Sloan, the watchdog group’s executive director. ”This includes using the charity to assist his campaign. No one, not even Ralph Nader, is exempt from campaign finance and tax laws.”
Questions about the rental arrangement were first raised in a March 15 story by Joe Conason in the online magazine Salon. Nader has denied any wrongdoing.
Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese called the allegations ”totally false” and described the lawsuit as ”completely frivolous and without merit.”
Zeese said the two organizations do not share phones and that a check with the building’s landlord revealed the campaign is actually paying above market rates for the space.
Watermellons.
A thin green skin on the outside with a giant red center.
One of the reasons Al Gore is going insane in public is to undercut Nader and the Greens. As long as those lefty nutballs see kooks like Gore in the Democrat party they will be less tempted to vote third party.
Ahhhh... that could explain a lot.
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