Date Posted: Monday, February 23, 2004

Ralph Nader announced Sunday he will run as an independent candidate for president.

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (MASNET & News Agencies) - Consumer advocate and 2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader announced he is running again for the White House, brushing aside concerns among Democrats that his candidacy would spoil their party's presidential chances.

"I've decided to run as an independent candidate for president," not representing the Greens, he said on NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.

Nader, who turns 70 this week, is blamed by many Democrats for former Vice President Al Gore's achingly narrow defeat by George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential vote, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In 2000, Nader convinced many Democratic voters that there was little difference between then Texas governor Bush, and Gore, who served as vice president under Bill Clinton, and he restated that viewpoint Sunday.

"Both parties are flunking, Republicans with a D-minus and Democrats with a D-plus," Nader said. "It's time to change the equation."

He has accused both Democrats and Republicans of being dominated by corporate lobbyists who care little about the needs of ordinary Americans, reports the Associated Press (AP).

"Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two parties are ferociously competing to see who is going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters," he said.

Nader said he made his decision "after careful thought," despite dire warnings from Democratic Party leaders that his bid might threaten the prospect that a Democrat will be able to defeat Bush in the November 2004 election.

A public opinion poll in October found two-thirds of Americans did not want Nader to run again, and Democrats from across the ideological spectrum have asked him to stay out of the race, reports Reuters news agency.

Some worried Democrats are campaigning on the Internet against Nader's candidacy with online petitions and web sites such as www.ralphdontrun.net.

The site warns that "today we need Ralph Nader with us, not against us," and urges people to contact his campaign and say: "Ralph, please don't run."

The site contends that Gore would have won the states of Florida, where Nader won 97,488 votes and Gore lost by a bitterly contested 537 votes, and New Hampshire - and hence the narrowly-contested U.S. presidency - had Nader not run.

Nader's bid won nearly 2.9 million overall votes in 2000, reports Reuters.

The consumer gadfly dismissed those assertions as "a contemptuous statement against democracy, against freedom, against more voices and choices for the American people."

"This is a fight for all third party candidates," Nader said. "This is not a democracy that can be controlled by two parties in the grip of corporate interests.

Nader, who said he wanted to challenge the country's "two-party monopoly," said "this country has more problems and injustice than it deserves ... There's too much power and wealth in too few hands."

"It is an offense to deny millions of people who might want to vote for our candidacy an opportunity to vote," he said, adding the "corporate government" practiced by both parties had led to rollbacks in labor, environmental, health care and economic standards, reports Reuters.

"It's time to change the equation and bring millions of American people into the political arena."

Nader, was to lay out his campaign themes - including universal health care, campaign finance reform, fighting poverty and addressing environmental concerns - at a press conference Monday in Washington before campaigning in Texas later this week, reports the AP.

He took several swipes at President George W. Bush, saying he is "really a giant corporation in the White House masquerading as a human being."

Nader started an exploratory committee late last year to raise money for a presidential run. He had ruled out another bid for the Green Party, which was split on his candidacy and will not pick its nominee until this summer, which Nader has said he believes is too late to launch a presidential campaign.

The question of whether Nader should run as a Green, however, had been a divisive one among many in the pro-environment group, with many opposing a Nader candidacy because he is not a declared member of that party.

Even old friends like liberal Vermont Representative 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."

Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, who personally urged Nader not to run, called the decision "unfortunate."

"It's very unfortunate that Ralph decided to run," McAuliffe said on CBS' "Face the Nation," adding: "There are people all over the country wishing he hadn't done it."

"You know, 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," he said.

On Monday, Nader suggested a close race might be more detrimental to the president than the Democratic nominee, reports the AP.

"I'd go after Bush even more vigorously as we are in the next few months in ways that the Democrats can't possibly do because they're too cautious and too unimaginative, but they can pick up the vulnerabilities and the failures of the Bush administration that we point out," Nader said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Democrats expect Nader to have less of an impact this year than in 2000, saying party and left-wing activists have learned how wrong Nader was when he claimed in 2000 there was no difference between the two parties, reports Reuters.

Sanders and others also suggested that Nader would not pull close to the 2.7 percent of the vote he won in 2000 - when he ran on the Green Party ticket - because he will have a difficult time getting on many state ballots without the backing of an established party or major financial resources, reports the AP.

Both Democratic presidential contenders, front-runner John Kerry and rival John Edwards, told reporters they were not worried that a Nader candidacy would hurt them if they face Bush in November, reports Reuters.

"I think my campaign is speaking to a lot of the issues Ralph Nader is concerned about," Kerry said. Edwards said "it will not impact my campaign" because he could attract many of the voters who might otherwise go to Nader.

Democratic officials issued a statement Sunday saying Nader has promised McAuliffe he will not criticize the Democratic nominee, but rather focus candidacy against the Bush administration, reports the AP.

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.

Michigan's and New Mexico's governors, who are leading figures in the Democratic Party, expressed the despair felt by many in their party about Nader's announced run.

"It's his personal vanity, because he has no movement, nobody's backing him. The Greens aren't backing him. His friends urge him not to do it. It's all about himself," Richardson told Fox News.

"I don't think he'll have a sizeable impact, but it's terrible if he goes ahead," he added.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm told Fox News Democrats have bad memories of Nader's last presidential candidacy.

"Well, of course we've got the experience of last time, and many would say that his candidacy gave the presidency to George Bush," Granholm said, adding, "we're certainly hopeful that this is not an impediment."

New Mexico and Michigan are considered key states in the presidential election, and each could swing for the Democratic candidate or Bush.

Republicans tried not to celebrate the news. "Regardless of what Ralph Nader does, President Bush is going to be re-elected in November," Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie said.