Independent Candidates Matt Gonzalez and Ralph Nader Rejoice Over PFP NominationRalph Nader's capture of the Peace and Freedom Party's (PFP) California Ballot line provides a major step in his Presidential campaign this year, affording him the opportunity of appearing on the ballot in the state that gave him a 3.9% margin in 2000. This brings his overall state ballot access to 23 with a hope of securing another 22 by September 20. It also greatly legitimizes his media worthiness, thereby adding to his campaign strength.
Nader won the California Green Party primary with a substantial lead (60.7 per cent), despite his not being a declared candidate. However, when he announced at the end of February that he was running as an Independent, he also prepared his Green constituents that he would cede his grasp of the California State Green Party ballot line to former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.
Nader's repeated declaration was a boon to the McKinney campaign, assuring her the lead in the national Green Party nomination. However, doubts loomed in the McKinney camp and amongst some Greens as to whether or not Nader would honor his repeated assurances of releasing claim to the Green Party line. Similarly, the Nader camp was concerned that McKinney would not relinquish her grasp on the PFP line of which she had won 21.4 per cent in the primaries, falling behind Nader at 41 percent. The third place candidate, Gloria LaRiva of the PFP and the Socialist and Liberation Party took 21%. Brian Moore, Socialist Party, sat at 4. per cent.
The PFP convention did not share the happy veil of "coopetition' that had filled the Green Party Convention a few weeks earlier. The Green Party candidates had worked in large part together throughout their campaigns, assisting one another with moral and strategic support and in the case of Kat Swift and Kent Mesplay, even shared a campaign manager. The PFP convention, however, was contentious, with factionalism spurring infinite definitions of socialism ranging from anti-corporate to pro-Marxist perspectives.
When McKinney appeared at the PFP convention this past weekend sharing a hospitality room with Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Gloria LaRiva, a palpable tension emerged within the Nader camp. Both female candidates share similiar goals of bridging and building a political movement that joins the black and brown communities. They reflect this intention in their vice-Presidential choices: LaRiva had selected a young black male student as her running mate and McKinney selected hip-hop political activist Rosa Clemente who is of Puerto Rican descent. Would McKinney throw her delegates to LaRiva? If so, that could have lost Nader the nomination and cost his campaign dearly as there was not enough time to collect the required number of 158,372+* signatures to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for President in California.
However, McKinney did not spend a lot of time campaigning and she was traveling without an entourage. Instead, she was using her time to explore the PFP of which she had little experience. In the hospitality room she shared with LaRiva, McKinney said with a warm smile, "In California, you sure have a lot of choices!" She spoke to the 20 people stuffed into the room about her recent trip to Stockton, California, a center of migrant farm laborers. In the tightly packed convention room, her literature was sparsely displayed and parlay with her delegates was minimal. Anxiety amongst those devoted to Nader relaxed the next day with news that McKinney had left the convention before the vote for a previous speaking engagement.
The delegates were not bound to the primary results so speeches made at the convention held great power to persuade. Betweeen the first and second day of the convention, Nader addressed the concerns of those who thought he was not far enough left for the PFP. And Peter Camejo, Nader's 2004 running mate and a respected member within Socialist circles, fired up the crowd, a feat which demonstrated remarkable strength, given he is once again undergoing cancer treatments and had just undergone a blood transfusion the previous day. Then there was Matt Gonzalez, Nader's running mate this year, whose articulation of his capabilities and goals sealed the Nader campaign's intentions and its value to the PFP. It was clear, in the first round of voting that Nader had taken the nomination. The Naderites cheered jubilantly and the previously tense faces relaxed into deep relief.
Just as Nader helped to grow the Green Party in 1996 and 2000, the PFP stands a good chance of growing its ballot line along with its number of registered voters. The test for the small party is how it will take advantage of the jumpstart which Nader's organization can provide once the election is over and Nader returns to his life as a non-party activist.
The Green Party saw a 100% jump in its registered members, due in large part to the enthusiasm generated with the 2000 Nader campaign. However, according to one Green Party founding member Ross Mirkarimi, the party was never able to capitalize on the kind of organization Nader had around him. Building a party was not Nader's goal. Rather, he wants to attack the vehicles blocking the path of all third parties and independents - ballot access. He was interested in toiling the soil in which the seeds could be planted, in which any progressive party could better flourish. While not enough for everyone, it was clearly a welcome opportunity for the majority of delegates at the PFP convention.
I am a documentary producer based in San Francisco, CA. My current project, "Seriously Green" watches the development of third parties during the course of the 2008 election cycle with an emphasis on the Green Party. You can find out more about (more...)
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Comment from Ratings: And that makes it valuable as far as I'm concerned. My friend in Calif. and I were talking--naturally about politics. And she mentioned Nader was really proud when he got on their ballot. I doubt she's on his bandwagon, and I really didn't know why she said what she said. This article lays out what happened.
It's very hard to get information about the interplay of third parties. I do get opinions of how they may be important as spoilers in certain areas. It's a good idea to see what these parties are working for. It's the only thing which budges the TWO off of opinion polls and contribution totals.
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Margaret Bassett (45 articles, 2909 quicklinks, 42 diaries, 1851 comments [99 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008 at 1:07:46 PM
How We can Help Nader make Impeachment Hearings Happen
Nader has been for impeachment since day one, but he cannot accomplish it by himself.
Arrayed against impeachment literally, is the entire Democratic Party establishment as well as the Republicans.
Most rank and file Democratic voters want Impeachment but are being ignored by the Democratic Congress.
In addition, many of the so called progressive organizations are also in lock step with them (ex: MoveOn & UFPJ) and against impeachment. It will take a very hard fight to over come this and some real courage on the part of individual Democratic voters.
In Colorado we have actually been doing negative campaigning against all incumbent Democratic Congressmen who refuse even to discuss impeachment.
We have a Congressman Udall who is running to be a Senator from Colorado. He supposedly has a liberal background but is moving right as fast as he can. He avoids all protesters who want to stop the Iraq War funding and who support impeachment. The difficult aspect is that the Colorado Democratic Party, the Media, and most Colorado Progressive organizations are helping him avoid us.
Even so, the race for the US Senate from Colorado is statistically "too close to call", so we have a real chance to make a difference here. We believe that since the race is "so close" that we actually can stop Udall from winning.
The way we are doing this is by doing "Negative Protesting" at our weekly impeachment events, all of his public events and by constant "commenting" on all newspaper articles about Udall (nationwide).
Up until about two weeks ago, the honking at our weekly events had quadrupled since January. Then we used much "tougher" anti-Udall language on our signs and the honking doubled again. So much so that the Denver Police came and threatened arrest if we continued to use "honk to impeach" signs and also threatened us with citations for "disturbing the peace". A strong indication that we are getting to the Democratic establishment and that the public is with us.
Regarding "commenting", after awhile you become somewhat adept at changing the subject of an article to relate it to Udall and why he shouldn't be a Senator from Colorado. It really stirs people up and gets the discussion going. If you all are interested in how we do that I can share a list of links to articles that we've commented on.
Given that impeachment advocates have worked hard to lobby Congress to hold hearings and have done so for many years with no results, we think it is time for all impeachment advocates to get tough with Incumbent House Democrats.
The House Democrats have ignored us for years. Unless we threaten to un-elect them with negative campaigning they will continue to ignore us.
John H Kennedy, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, organizer of the IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION
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