Nader announces run for president as an independent

Maria Recio / Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential nominee, brushed aside the "spoiler" label given him by Democrats after the 2000 election and announced Sunday he is running for president as an independent.

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Nader confirmed the decision that many Democrats had been expecting - and fearing - for weeks. "There's just too much power and wealth in too few hands," said Nader. "Washington is now a corporate-occupied territory."

"There's a 'For Sale' sign on almost every door of agencies and departments where these corporations dominate and they put their appointments in high office," said Nader. "The Congress is what Will Rogers once called 'the best money can buy.'"

Nader's candidacy, first reported by Knight Ridder on Feb. 14, was harshly criticized by leading Democrats, including Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who fear that this time Nader would hand President Bush a re-election victory.

"There are people all over the country wishing he hadn't done it (before)," said a disappointed McAuliffe on CBS' "Face the Nation." "They remember the 2000 election, they remember New Hampshire, they remember Florida, and the margins of victories there."

Nader, who was on the ballot in 43 states and the District of Columbia, got 2.7 percent of the vote nationwide but was a deciding factor in those two states. Nader received 97,488 votes in Florida, which Bush won by 537 votes. In New Hampshire Nader earned 22,198 votes, which Bush won by 7,211 votes.

In an interview Sunday with Knight Ridder, Nader said if he were spoiling anyone's chances it would be the Republicans.

"This will enhance the Democrats," argued Nader, who said that his 2000 voters broke down 38 percent Democratic voters and 25 percent Republicans with Greens and independents making up the rest.

"Right now, I am persuaded I will draw far more independents and Republicans who would otherwise have voted for Bush than I would get from the Democratic Party candidate," he said. "Conservatives are furious with Bush over deficits, the Patriot Act, corporate subsidies, corporate support of pornography, NAFTA, GATT and sovereignty."

Nader, who detests the "spoiler" tag, calling it "contemptuous," also has promised to focus his attacks on Bush, but warned the Democratic nominee to avoid criticizing his independent candidacy.

The two leading Democratic presidential contenders, front-runner Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, tried to put a positive spin on a Nader candidacy.

"I think I'm going to have a campaign that will speak to those people who ... supported him last time," said Kerry when asked about a Nader candidacy on Saturday. "This is going to be a different campaign this time, I assure you."

Edwards said Sunday: "It's important for the Democrats to have somebody at the top of the ticket who will be appealing to some of the voters that Ralph Nader might attract." Nader's candidacy, he added, "will not impact my campaign."

Nader's announcement came after an unprecedented campaign to dissuade him from many of his core supporters, including the editors of the liberal magazine, The Nation. McAuliffe was so concerned about Nader's possible entry into the race that he met with him personally to convince him not to run.

Republicans were not buying Nader's argument that he would hurt Bush.

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, also appearing on the CBS program, said, "From my perspective, regardless of what Ralph Nader does, President Bush is going to be re-elected come November."

Richardson, who spoke on Fox News, accused Nader of running out of "personal vanity because he has no movement, nobody is backing him, the Greens aren't backing him, his friends urge him not to do it ... It's all about himself."

But Nader said he could attract like-minded citizens, especially young people from the former campaign of liberal Democrat Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who withdrew from the presidential campaign last week. Dean said he would support the Democratic nominee.

Nader decided not to run as a Green in December because the long nomination process would have hampered his campaign.

As for raising money and gaining ballot access in 50 states, Nader said he had devised a strategy of fund raising through dinners, autographed sales of his books and renewed emphasis on the Web. "We're going to learn from the Dean fund-raising campaign team," he said, immediately adding the name of the Web site, votenader.org.

Nader will begin traveling the country to energize volunteers to get the signatures needed for a line on the election ballots, focusing on Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana and California. He said he will be in Texas twice in March because the Lone Star State's window to get on the ballot is open only for 60 days after the March 9 primary.

Asked about his age - he turns 70 on Feb. 27 - Nader playfully replied, "Shhhhh." Ronald Reagan, was 69 when he ran in 1980 and became the nation's oldest president when he won. But said Nader, "I don't dye my hair."

Pressed if he had the energy for another campaign, Nader said, "I find it invigorating."

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(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

Chuck Kennedy / KRT Campus

WASHINGTON, DC - Presidential hopeful Ralph Nader addresses a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Monday, February 23, 2004. Nader said he won't back off from his latest campaign for the White House even if the major candidates are tied in polls going in to Election Day, a scenario that led many friends and former supporters to urge him not to run again.