The Constitution’s 12th Amendment explains that a person ineligible for the presidency is also ineligible for the vice presidency. Moreover, whether one agrees with the provision or not, Article 2, Sec. 1, of the Constitution says you have to be a “natural born citizen” to be eligible to seek the presidency, and according to the 12th Amendment, the vice presidency.
Which leads me to ask: Where was Peter Camejo, Ralph Nader’s running mate, born?
It should be a fairly simple question, but the answer is not altogether clear. When Nader announced his running mate, he described Camejo as “a first generation American of Venezuelan decent who was born in New York in 1939.” OK, but…
Camejo is also Chair of the Board of Progressive Asset Management, a California investment firm he founded in 1987. The firm’s website, as my friend Darrell noted, described Nader’s would-be VP differently.
Mr. Camejo, originally from Venezuela, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Well, it’s either one or the other, but it can’t be both.
This may be a significant issue. Dems are hoping to keep Nader off the ballot and need all the legal fire power they can get. Camejo’s status could very well offer them a new argument that would make Nader’s ticket ineligible for ballots nationwide. And if the campaign lied about Camejo’s birthplace to circumvent the law, it could have a political problem to compound its legal one.
At a minimum, the Nader campaign should be able to offer an explanation and prove where, exactly, Camejo is from. I honestly have no idea, but I know the answer could mean a great deal this year.
Postscript: Just to be clear, I’ve never been particularly fond of the “natural born citizen” rule. I’ve written, on more than one occasion, that Congress should seriously consider an amendment that would allow naturalized citizens to seek the presidency, and by extension, the vice presidency.
I believe we are a nation of immigrants. Men and women who may been born elsewhere come to the United States, become citizens, and are just as much a part of this country as those of us who were born on American soil. They pay taxes, vote, serve in the military, and hold elected office, just like every other citizen. Reasons that may have prompted the Founding Fathers to prohibit naturalized citizens from being president are no longer applicable now and the rule is discriminatory.
However, the Constitution has not been amended, the law is the law, and there seems to be an important question here that deserves an answer. And if Camejo was born in Venezuela, then I hope Dems can and will use this to keep the Nader ticket off the ballot.
Update: Demagogue’s Eugene Oregon has alerted me to a San Francisco Chronicle story published two years ago suggests Camejo may have been born in New York after all.
Camejo entered the world on New Year’s Eve 1939 at a hospital in Queens, N.Y., where his mother, Elvia, had flown from Venezuela. Her desire for American health care had the benefit of giving Camejo dual citizenship in the United States and Venezuela.
Camejo spent his first seven years in Venezuela, where his family boasted a web of ties to that country’s government. For a time, Camejo’s father, Daniel, a political conservative, was the country’s head of tourism.
Camejo’s parents divorced when he was 7, and he moved to New York with his mother.
This certainly makes it sound like Camejo is fully eligible to run as Nader’s VP, but I still wonder why his own investment firm would describe him as a “naturalized citizen” if that’s not true.