Knocking out Nader becomes a campaignPage full of 2 -- Campaigns may die, but campaign operatives dust themselves off and move to the next project -- often carrying old grudges and philosophies with them.
And while the next big thing is usually a rising political star, one of the newest rivalries in politics this year involves two grass-roots campaigns aimed at knocking out Ralph Nader. A year ago, this is how two unconventional primary campaigns became contenders: Some upstart strategists and wannabe politicos launched websites on their own, and used them to build grass-roots support. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean drew early energy from independent weblogs, encouraged by Dean's official campaign headquarters. Retired Army General Wesley K. Clark got ample persuasion from big-name political veterans, but also credited two "Draft Clark" movements with drawing him into the race. Now, veterans of both efforts have launched anti-Nader campaigns, which they hope will persuade voters who are leaning toward the consumer advocate to throw their support to Democrat John F. Kerry. As in the primaries, when competing strategies ruffled feathers, the groups disagree about how best to go after Nader. Some alumni of Draft Clark 2004, a group that built a proto-campaign organization before Clark launched his own, have set up a political action committee and website called StopNader.com. This week, they plan to start running a scathing television ad in the battleground state of Oregon, linking Nader's 2000 candidacy to President Bush's policies. "Ralph, what's more important, your nation or your ego?" the voiceover asks. "Don't do this to us again." Meanwhile, some old hands from Draft Wesley Clark, a separate group that used fund-raising pledges and publicity stunts to generate buzz for Clark, have joined former Dean communications director Tricia Enright to form an advocacy group called The Nader Factor. They've borrowed some old Dean catchphrases -- "You have the power to take back this country!" their website declares -- and produced a gentler ad that started running yesterday in Wisconsin and New Mexico. Whether either strategy can succeed remains to be seen. So far, Nader isn't budging, said his campaign spokesman, Kevin Zeese. Nader will be in Boston today to meet with supporters and has embarked on a marathon tour of 11 states in one week, Zeese said. "It makes all of us here want to do more of what we're doing," Zeese said. "He's not going to let these whining Democrats, these carping Democrats, change his mind." That's part of the reason StopNader.com leaders describe their approach as "hard-line," with an emphasis on practical steps they hope will keep Nader from gaining traction. They plan to file an amicus brief in Texas, where Nader has launched a court challenge to state signature rules that are keeping him off the November ballot. They want to scrutinize the signatures Nader is collecting in other states, in part, one operative said, to keep the campaign busy so it has less time for rallies and persuasion. 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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