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Vol.64/No.9             March 6, 2000 
 
 
Nader announces campaign for president  
 
 
BY PATRICK O'NEILL  
Ralph Nader announced February 21 that he would seek the presidential nomination of the Green Party. Nader is a liberal political figure, best known as a consumer rights advocate. In 1996 he ran for president on the Green ticket.

Nader's 1996 campaign was marked by nationalist themes. The North American Free Trade Association treaty means "we're exporting jobs--probably about 350,000 to 400,000" to Mexico, he said. He complimented rightist politician Patrick Buchanan, now vying for the Reform Party presidential nomination, saying he has "learned a lot in the last few years about corporate power." At the same time, Nader presented his campaign as a "pull to the left" for the Democratic Party.

According to the February 21 Green Party news release announcing Nader's bid, in 1996 he "received nearly 700,000 votes and finished in fourth place, although limiting his campaign spending to under $5,000. In 2000, the Nader campaign intends to raise $5 million dollars."

The campaign will have similar themes to the effort of four years ago. Nader says he will concentrate on "democracy, concentrated corporate power and the excessive disparities of wealth." The Green Party's press release states that "Nader's advisors claim that his campaign will help turn out the vote and could assist the Democrats in taking back Congress." Nader will invoke "the message of last year's Seattle demonstrations against the WTO," reads the statement. Those demonstrations were led by union officials and liberal and environmental activists, who put forward economic nationalist slogans that drew favorable comment from Buchanan.  
 
 
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