Nader cronaca della campagna di un imbroglione

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nello IOWA Nader si appoggia ai repubblicani per raccogliere le firme necessarie alla presentazione della candidatura ha l'aiuto diretto del presidente bush e del vice-presidente cheney.

fonte usa today


Nader petitions circulated at GOP rally
CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Some of President Bush's supporters are again being asked to sign petitions to put consumer activist Ralph Nader on the ballot in Iowa as an independent presidential candidate.
At least one volunteer was asking Republicans who were gathered to hear Vice President Dick Cheney speak at a rally in this Des Moines suburb to sign a petition for Nader. The volunteer refused to identify himself or what group he was with.

One woman who signed the petition said she did so because Nader could steal votes from Democratic presidential candidate Kerry.

Kristin Scuderi, Iowa GOP spokeswoman, said she did not know who was behind the effort.

"No employee of the Republican Party is circulating petitions for Ralph Nader," she said. "I think it's people that just support his candidacy."

It is not the first time that Nader petitions have been circulated at a Republican event.

Volunteers also were gathering signatures last month when President Bush attended a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids. Spokeswoman Merrill Hughes Smith said they were not with the campaign.

Nader failed to make the ballot earlier this month in California, where he needed more than 153,000 signatures to qualify.

But it's easier to get on the ballot in Iowa, where all that's needed is 1,500 signatures.

The deadline for submission to the secretary of state's office is Friday.

Nader, who ran on the Green Party ticket in 2000, was credited by many Democrats with taking votes away from Vice President Al Gore in Florida. According to final results, George W. Bush won the state by 537 votes, while Nader picked up 97,488.

In Iowa, Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by a margin of just 4,144 votes, while Nader drew 30,000 votes running on the Green Party ticket.

The vote in Iowa is expected to be close again this year.

Asked if having Nader on the ballot would help Bush in Iowa, Gentry Collins, executive director of the Iowa GOP, said: "It sure wouldn't hurt."

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anche in Pennsylvania Nader si appoggia ai repubblicani che ricambiano con entusiasmo


Republicans fund Nader as decisive electoral weapon

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday August 10, 2004
The Guardian

Ralph Nader, the consumers' champion who became the scourge of Democrats for his determination to run for US president, faced a concerted challenge yesterday to his candidacy in a battleground state.
In two separate lawsuits, Democratic activists in Pennsylvania sought to keep Mr Nader off November's ballot.

The move intensifies the war between Republicans and Democrats over Mr Nader's candidacy, a conflict fuelled by the maverick's willingness to accept funds and help from some of George Bush's most ardent supporters.

Republicans are eager to see Mr Nader do well - not because of his stand on the environment or Iraq - but in the hope that he will tip the balance towards Mr Bush in the race against John Kerry, the Democratic challenger. But the Democrats have stood their ground, with activists harrying Mr Nader's effort to get on the ballot in several states.

In the Pennsylvania lawsuits Democrats accused the Nader campaign of falsifying thousands of names on petitions endorsing his candidacy in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas. His campaign was also accused of failing to pay the contractors who organised the petition and who allegedly paid homeless people a dollar for each signature.

A spokesman for Mr Nader said only petition gatherers who turned in fraudulent signatures were unpaid.

The Democrats took Pennsylvania by a relatively slim margin during the last election and party activists defended the law suits against Mr Nader yesterday.

"The bottom line for us is that we are partisan Democrats, and we are very much interested in getting John Kerry elected," said Michael Manzo, aide to a Democratic state legislator. "We view Mr Nader's candidacy as a threat. Will it be a large threat? We hope not, but we are not willing to take any chances."

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Similar scenarios are unfolding in other states with Democrats fighting a rearguard action to keep Mr Nader out of the presidential race.

In the battleground state of Arizona he was knocked off the ballot on a technicality, and the party is raising funds for legal challenges in Florida, Michigan, West Virginia and Nevada.

Mr Nader dismissed the challenges as a display of insecurity. "It shows the lack of confidence Democrats have in their own candidate," he told Businessweek magazine.

However, among Mr Nader's new supporters this election is the billionaire Richard Egan, who was appointed ambassador to Ireland after raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Bush. Campaign monitors say other big Republican donors have contributed as well. In Oregon, also poised for a tight contest, two conservative groups admitted telephoning supporters to help put Mr Nader on the ticket.

But even with the new-found patrons, he has made slow progress in his effort to get on state ballots. He missed a chance to get on the ballot in California at the weekend when supporters raised only half the 153,000 signatures required.

But Democrats say that was Mr Nader's due when he decided to contest these elections, reopening the feud on the American left begun when Mr Nader drained off crucial support for Al Gore in the 2000 elections, handing Mr Bush his victory.

With memories of that defeat still rankling, even some of Mr Nader's closest associates were outraged when he announced his candidacy earlier this year.

That anger grew further when Mr Nader rebuffed a request from Mr Kerry to stay out of the race in key states.

That is when the Democratic machine stepped in with Howard Dean, a hero to the party's left wing for his anti-war stance, deployed to herd wayward Democrats.

One of Mr Dean's aides from his failed campaign for the Democratic leadership founded a website called the Nader Factor which documents Republican support for Mr Nader.

Mr Nader is not expected to match the 2.8m votes he won last time. But some like John Zogby, the Democratic pollster, say that hardly matters.

He said Mr Nader could hold the balance in several states - should he succeed in getting on the ballot.

But his candidacy presents another challenge for the Democrats.

"He is the ghost of the left, he is the one who rallies the anti-war sentiment and Democratic populism, and so his presence in the race is casting a shadow on Kerry," Mr Zogby said.

"It's not going to be enough for him just not to be George Bush."

States of flux

A poll last week had Kerry on 48%, Bush 43%, and Nader 3%. If Nader gets on the ballots, and taking into account polls' margins of error, he can turn several states, including:


www.guardian.co.uk

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nader raccoglie firme false?

Associated Press


HARRISBURG, Pa. - Ballot petitions circulated in Philadelphia for independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader contained a surprising number of fictitious signatures, said a lawyer who planned to challenge the petitions Monday.

Gregory M. Harvey, a Philadelphia attorney who helped oversee a review of the petitions ordered by Democratic leaders of the state House of Representatives, said usually no more than 10 to 15 of petition signatures are false. In the case of Nader's petitions, he said there were an "enormous number," including one sheet of 100 names on which 92 of the supposed signers could not be verified.

Harvey, who specializes in election law, said Nader's petitions were the worst he'd seen in 15 years.

The Nader camp turned in about 50,000 signatures - nearly double the 25,697 state law requires. Democratic leaders in the state House of Representatives have had dozens of volunteers scrutinizing the petitions for the past week and plan to file their challenge in Commonwealth Court on Monday.

Many of the signatures were collected in Philadelphia through a contractor who paid petition circulators between 75 cents and $1 per signature. Under state law, people who sign the petitions must be registered voters and list their addresses.

Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese dismissed the allegations Monday as "absolute nonsense."

"They're grasping at straws," he said in a telephone interview from Washington.

Zeese said the Nader campaign reviewed the signatures before they were filed and discarded all that seemed legally questionable. He acknowledged finding "more than we would like to have found," but maintained there remained more than enough valid signatures to get Nader on the ballot.

Democrats have said they are concerned that Nader's presence on the ballot could drain away support from their own nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and potentially cost him a crucial battleground state with 21 electoral votes - the fifth largest electoral prize.

An independent Quinnipiac University poll conducted last month showed Kerry leading President Bush in the state 49 percent to 42 percent in a two-way race. Adding Nader to the equation showed Kerry's support dwindling to 46 percent, compared to 41 percent for Bush and 5 percent for Nader.



http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/

riportando Associated Press

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il tribunale di harrisburg lo chiama a rispondere delle presunte firme false



HARRISBURG, Pa. Lawyers from opposite ends of the state today challenged independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's petitions to get on Pennsylvania's November second ballot.

The lawyers, who were helped by Democratic leaders in the state House of Representatives in a weeklong review of Nader's petitions, contend that thousands of the signatures are forged, fictitious or legally flawed in other ways.

In a challenge filed in Commonwealth Court, they said there are more than enough invalid signatures to prevent Nader from competing against President Bush and Democratic nominee John Kerry for Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes.

Nader campaign spokesman Kevin Zeese dismissed the allegations as "absolute nonsense."

Zeese said the Nader campaign reviewed the signatures before they were filed and discarded all that seemed legally questionable. He acknowledged finding -quote- "more than we would like to have found," but maintained there remained more than enough valid signatures to get Nader on the ballot

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N.H. anche qui i repubblicani aiutano nader a raccogliere le firme sia altruismo democratico



PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Ralph Nader's bid to get on the state ballot in November apparently got some help from Republicans who gathered to see President Bush during a campaign stop Friday.

In a show appearance, Michael Moore, left, and Bill Maher, right, beg Nader, center, not to run in the upcoming election.
AP

David Carney, a founder of Norway Hill Associates, a Hancock consulting firm, said an intern in his office had hired between 10 and 15 temporary workers to gather signatures for Nader near Bush's campaign stop in Stratham. (Related news: Nader won't be on Calif. ballot)

Carney, whose firm's clients have included former Republican Sens. Bob Dole and Phil Gramm, told the Portsmouth Herald that nobody from the Bush-Cheney campaign had asked his firm to collect the signatures.

"We had nothing to do with it," said Maria Comella, spokeswoman for Bush's state campaign. "This campaign is focused on the president, and we believe he is going to be successful with or without Ralph Nader on the ballot."

Kathleen Strand, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said she was disappointed to hear about the effort.

"It's an outrage, but I'm not surprised that Republicans would be involved in helping Nader," she said.

Aaron Rizzio, who runs Nader's New Hampshire petition drive to get on the ballot said the workers at the Bush rally were not associated with the Nader campaign.

"That tells me that Republicans are desperate," he said. "And I'm skeptical about how successful it would be."

Since Nader announced his campaign in February, Democrats have beseeched him not to run. Many blame him for taking votes from Al Gore in such razor-thin states as Florida and helping ensure Bush's victory in the 2000 election.

Nader has worked to get his name on ballots in 46 states and Washington, D.C. Thus far, he has been approved for ballots in Nevada and New Jersey and, if he chooses, has automatic ballot access in six other states, including Florida.

In Michigan last month, state election officials were given 50,000 in support of Nader's effort to appear on the ballot there. Most of the signatures were turned in by the Michigan Republican Party.

Nader must submit 4,000 signatures by Aug. 11 in order to have his name appear on New Hampshire's ballot.

Emily Sawka, of Kittery, Maine, was one of the workers Carney's firm hired at $12-an-hourr to gather the signatures.

The 25-year-old said she and other temporary workers were told to show up Friday morning at a Shaw's supermarket in Stratham, near the dairy farm where Bush was to speak to supporters at a picnic that afternoon.

Sawka said she was given a clipboard and a script instructing her to tell those at the rally: "Without Nader, Bush would not be president."

She also said her boss told her that "what we are doing is collecting signatures for Ralph Nader in support of Bush, because if we can get Ralph Nader on the ballot, then that would take votes away from John Kerry."

Sawka did not got through with the job.

"I decided that I could not in good conscience do this," she said. "I feel like it was just a really kind of underhanded thing for the Bush campaign to be doing. That just seemed really dishonest and underhanded to me."

Besides the hourly pay, the workers were told they would get $100 for every 100 signatures they collected, Sawka said. If people asked who was paying them, she said she was told to say, "Nader's campaign pays 75 cents a signature."

Sawka provided Foster's Daily Democrat with a copy of the script the workers were given. It advised them to approach people and say, "Excuse me sir/miss etc. I was wondering if you could take a second to help President Bush?"

The script also said: "In 2000 Nader got almost 30,000 votes — without his presence Al Gore would be president today."

Nader's 22,198 votes in New Hampshire in 2000 was nearly three times Bush's victory margin over Gore, who would have won the presidency with the state's four electoral votes.

But exit polls conducted by The Associated Press and the television networks suggested that Bush would have won New Hampshire even if Nader had not been on the ballot. Some Nader voters said they would have stayed home, and Gore's margin over Bush among the rest probably would not have put him over