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August 7, 2008
Nader Plans Imminent Havoc While Healy Licks His Chops
August 7, 2008
“Any Democrat ought to be favored,” University of Virginia political scientists Larry Sabato said yesterday during a converstaion about Ralph Nader apparent qualification for the November presidential ballot in Connecticut. “The fundamental factors are rarely as aligned pro-Democratic as they are now.”
Nader received a minuscule 12,969 votes in Connecticut in 2004, compared to 857,488 for John Kerry and 693,826 for President Bush. Sabato blamed Kerry for being a bad candidate back in 2004, when he hesitated to immediately respond to GOP-organized criticism of his Vietnam War record.
In 2000, Nader, running on the Green Party ticket in Connecticut,received 64,452 votes, compared to 816,015 for Gore and Lieberman, then a Democrat and 561,094 for George W. Bush.
The Nader campaign said yesterday it has withdrawn any attempt to get on the ballot in Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas, Indiana and North Carolina, because those states make it too hard for independent presidential bids.Cristina Tobin, Nader's national ballot coordinator, criticized Connecticut election law for requiring petition signatures to be listed along town lines at a time when the state’s computerized election rolls are available on-line.
In addition, the petitions get mailed back to voter registrars in all169 towns and cities, for the validation process. “They could just handle this process right here,” she said, adding that the statewide petition effort cost Nader less than $10,000.“There’s no reason why these petitions should be broken down by town,” Tobin said. “The only reason it’s being broken down by town is to make our life more difficult for third parties.
Even paranoids have enemies.
Chris Healy, the fulminating chairman of the Republican State Central Committee,agreed Wednesday that Nader’s impact will be negligible, but he has every right to campaign.
“If he’s got the support and he’s qualified, good luck to him,” Healy said, acknowledging that Nader would take away Democratic votes. “It’s nice to see a native son do well.”
Healy said that now that the state has gotten rid of voting machines,ballot placement has less impact than ever, giving petitioning candidates more of an advantage.“The obstacles to a third, fourth or fifth-party candidate have been equalized by the tactile paper ballots,” Healy said. “In the old days, alternative-party candidates were at the bottom, difficult tofind. Now it’s all on one sheet.”
Healy, recalling the controversial conclusion of the 2000 campaign,when the Supreme Court gave the presidency to Bush, said Gore had the same problem that Kerry did four years later.“Al Gore helped elect George Bush,” Healy said. “He ran a lousy campaign and that was more than eight years ago. Get over it.”
Posted by Ken on August 7, 2008 10:21 AM
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