In Green Party circles, debates have been ongoing for months about what to do with Ralph Nader. Some want him to run a serious campaign, others don’t want him to run at all so they can focus on beating Bush, and still others want a half-hearted effort in states that are likely to be uncompetitive.<\/p>\n
That said, some Greens don’t appear to know exactly what to do with Nader. In fact, some in the party aren’t even sure if he’s a Green Party member<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Sure, the consumer advocate has run on the Green Party ticket for president a few times now, but by his own admission, Nader is not a registered member of the Green Party and he’s never even read the party’s platform. Nader has effectively just used the party as a mechanism through which he can run his ego-driven campaigns.<\/p>\n
Some of the Green Party’s leadership actually wants to build a real political party, made up of people who believe as they do. Having its most visible candidate — the one running for the nation’s highest office — publicly ignore the party’s message and purpose isn’t a particularly wise approach. A handful of Greens have been hoping to see Nader replaced by a different candidate in 2004.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, however, Nader beat them to the punch, announcing that he will not seek the Green Party’s nomination<\/a>. Before you start jumping up and down, however, Nader suggested he could (and probably will) run for president as an independent, without any party’s support.<\/p>\n If Nader does run, he may find qualifying for the ballot in every state to be quite challenging. The Green Party may be small, but it’s already secured ballot slots nationwide. Nader, if he wants to run as a genuine independent, will need a large and organized campaign structure just to collect the signatures.<\/p>\n