Battleground State Ballot Access Puts Ralph Nader Campaign At-RiskThree parties? I won't share my take on this, save to point out how important it is to vote for the candidate in this election who you really want to not lose an extremely closely contested race.
Wise, Va. -- Ballot access is everything to a struggling third party candidate like Ralph Nader but the former two-time Green Party candidate was suffered a serious blow to his national effort by his former party when they opted not to endorse him in the 2004 national election contest and thereby denying him ballot access in key states.
Nader is blamed in (sic) nearly every Democrat in the nation for handing the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush by taking away votes in Arizona, Florida, and New Hampshire and thereby tip the Electoral College balance away from Al Gore in the historic Supreme Court decided outcome.
Many Democrats fear and political analysts note the possibility of history repeating itself with Nader denying John F. Kerry the White House under similar close-vote circumstances.
Nader is a bleep in the national polling data but his potential impact in key electoral vote states may have yet another far reaching impact. And, Republicans hope Nader will.
Two Republican leaning groups are working to get Nader access to the battleground state of Oregon . Meanwhile in Arizona, another battleground state, Democrats are going to court contesting thousands of signatures on Nader petitions to gain ballot access there.
More than 25,000 signatures are needed by Aug. 2 to get on the ballot in Pennsylvania, a key electoral state, where doubts are now being raised that Nader will make the high-stakes ballot.
In a head-to-head race against the incumbent Republican, the independent Quinnipiac University poll showed Kerry would win 49 percent of the vote and Bush would get 43 percent of Pennsylvania voters. A similar survey in May showed the two running about even, with 45 percent for Kerry and 42 percent for Bush.
But in the three-way race, the latest survey showed Kerry attracting only 44 percent, with Bush at 43 percent, Nader with 7 percent, and 4 percent undecided in Pennsylvania.
Similar results are found in other battleground states according to Zogby International, a highly respected polling firm, monitoring 2004 presidential battleground states.
But it was the Green Party that put a major damper on Nader's presidential ballot access Saturday after he was denied the party's endorsement for president. He carried the party's banner in the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections.
Green Party activists deemed Nader as betraying the party by bolting its organization and forming his own Populist Party.
Rebuffed by the national Green Party, Nader may have a more difficult time gaining ballot access in several states... Of the states with Green Party ballot access, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin are among 16-key closely-watched battleground states that may well decide the election between Bush and Kerry as the November 2 national presidential election approaches.
Nader was endorsed by the Reform Party in 2004 giving the three-time presidential candidate ballot access in at least seven states including Florida, Michigan, Colorado, key battleground states.
But the political smack-down given Nader by the Green Party may actually result in ending his 2004 ballot access in many states and boosting Kerry's chances in closely contested states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin.
Nader's strategy was to gain the endorsement of the Reform Party and the Green Party while pushing his own ballot access in remaining states as the Populist Party.
In Green Party news in today's My Wise County (Virginia), information about Ralph Nader:
