Knocking out Nader becomes a campaignPage 2 of 2 -- Because the group is an old-style PAC -- not one established under the latest campaign finance laws -- it is free to run explicit anti-Nader ads up to Election Day, call directly for Nader to drop out of the race, run partisan get-out-the-vote drives, and criticize the candidate without mincing words.
The idea is to make an unsentimental case about Nader's effect in 2000, said Mike Frisby, a former Boston Globe reporter who worked for Draft Clark 2004 and now is spokesman for StopNader.com. His group has little sympathy for the Naderites who "look me in the eye and say that they're an idealist," Frisby said. "There's a time and a place for everything, and right now is not a time and a place for idealism." But the minds behind The Nader Factor think this isn't a time for contentiousness, either. Their program hews closer to a 12-step program or a group hug: Collecting testimonials from converted Nader voters, establishing a petition to build "a dynamic grass-roots community." Their current TV ad features a high school English teacher who says he supported Nader "because I love my country," but now understands that his vote "undermines all the issues I care about." "I call this the 'love and embrace' strategy," said Chris Kofinis, a former Draft Wesley Clark organizer who now does strategy for The Nader Factor. "These guys aren't the enemy." Enright, the group's president, says she wants to convince Nader voters that they can still have a voice within the Democratic Party. The group can collect unlimited donations, but faces some restrictions on what it can do and say, said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. Nader Factor ads can mention candidates by name until 60 days before the general election, but can't use what Noble calls the "magic words" of advocacy: "vote for," "elect," "defeat." The Nader camp, for its part, challenges both groups' main premise: that Nader votes in swing states cost Democrat Al Gore the 2000 election.
Zeese cited the nearly half of Americans who didn't vote at all four years ago and said Democrats should concentrate on wooing the party and union members who voted for Bush. "Nader is a symptom of their problem," he said. "He's not going to drop out. Learn to live with it and just start to get to work." © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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