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Ralph Nader to Kerry: 'Call Off Your Dogs'
by Dan Whitcomb
Sunday August 01, 2004 at 09:45 PM
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites) said on Friday that Democrats were using "dirty tricks" to keep him off the ballot in key states and demanded that the party's freshly anointed nominee John Kerry "call off your dogs."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader said on Friday that Democrats were using "dirty tricks" to keep him off the ballot in key states and demanded that the party's freshly anointed nominee John Kerry "call off your dogs."
Nader, unpopular with many Democrats since he ran as a third-party candidate in 2000 and was seen as costing Al Gore the election, also dismissed accusations that he was heavily supported by Republicans.
Nader, speaking at a campaign stop in Los Angeles one day after Kerry accepted the Democratic party nomination, said the senator's "underlings" were "harassing, obstructing and impeding" his efforts to get on the ballot in all 50 states.
"I say to Sen. John Kerry, call off your dogs," Nader said. "Stop encouraging these dirty tricks or you will be held responsible."
Those dirty tricks, he said, included Democratic operatives "directly harassing" his signature gatherers in West Virginia and filing legal challenges to his candidacy in Arizona that he could not afford to fight in court.
Though Nader conceded that he had "no knowledge" of any illegal activities by Democrats, he said efforts to keep him and running mate Peter Camejo off ballots were "unethical and inappropriate."
He said that despite those efforts he expected to make it on the ballots in 43 states and the District of Columbia.
Addressing charges that he had become a tool of the Republican party, Nader said that "slightly under 10 percent" of contributions to his campaign came from Republicans, virtually all from individuals.
He said that he "would not accept any kind of organized, strategic" funds.
Nader also said that Democrats should stop "freaking out" over his candidacy and denied that his name on the 2000 ballot denied Gore a chance at the presidency.
He said that in Florida, where the election was decided, 10 times as many Democrats deserted Gore to vote for Bush than to vote for the Nader ticket.
"The Democrats, like the Republicans, think they own the voters," he said.
Nader also called on Kerry to debate him one-on-one, saying that he would agree to limit the topic entirely to the record of the Bush administration.
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