Nader Maintains Strong Campaign Despite Critics

— -- Green Party candidate Ralph Nader was campaigning today in the fiercely contested state of Wisconsin, while Democrats’ calls for him to drop out of the presidential race grow louder.

By Dan HarrisABCNEWS.comNov. 2

— Ignoring mounting criticism that he might cost Al Gore the election, Green Party candidate

Ralph Nader campaigned in the battleground state of Wisconsin today.

His top priority is creating a viable third party for the future.

“Those two parties have sold off our democracy, and they’ve got to be challenged,” Nader says.

At every stop, he talks about universal health care, stronger labor unions and publicly financed campaigns.

“Big business is on a collision course with our democracy and our democracy is losing,” he said today during a rally in Madison.

He’s facing increasing venom from the Democrats, who are calling on Nader to drop out or at least ask his supporters in battleground states to support Gore. To get their message across, Democrats are holding concerts, staging news conferences and circulating letters.

And in Washington, D.C. today, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) said that if Nader throws the election to Bush, it will have real consequences. NARAL is running anti-Nader ads in key states, and they’ve boosted they amount of money they’re spending on advertisements.

Making A Statement

Many Nader supporters say they are immune to the political pressure.

“We’ve got to make a statement, and we may have to lose something to gain something,” says one Nader supporter.

But there are also nervous Nader voters. In order to get federal funding in the next election, Nader must get 5 percent of the vote on Tuesday. Some want the Green Party to get the required 5 percent of votes, but they don’t want to see George W. Bush in the White House.

Several Web sites are offering a possible solution: they’re seeking Nader supporters in contested states who are willing to vote for Gore. In exchange, a Gore supporter will vote for Nader in a state where the race is not competitive.

“That totally helps me with my conscience, because I really, really don’t like Bush,” says Sarah Hall of NaderTrader.org, one of the vote-swapping sites.

A Real Campaign

In the face of all this, Nader’s operation is morphing from an ad hoc, low-budget operation to something resembling a real campaign. He now has an entourage, complete with security guards and a small group of reporters.

Also, he launched a new round of ads Tuesday that are a takeoff on Monster.com’s commercials.

Criticism of his campaign notwithstanding, Nader insists he is not concerned about playing spoiler.

“I would be very astonished that Al Gore, running budget surpluses in a booming economy could not have landslided [sic] a bumbling governor from Texas with a terrible record,” Nader says. “If he can’t do that, what good is he?”

With only six days left, this election may hinge on the man that many call “one of the most stubborn people in the United States.”