Nader Backers Plan Campaign Meeting

Ralph Nader supporters in Sandpoint are hosting a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday to share information about Nader’s presidential campaign.

Nader, a Green Party candidate and longtime consumer advocate, has not gathered enough signatures from registered voters in Idaho to make the state’s presidential ballot. Supporters in Sandpoint, however, hope to launch a successful write-in campaign.

Success, they say, is winning 5 percent of the vote nationwide, which would qualify the Green Party for federal matching funds in the 2004 election.

Nader supporter Gretchen Ward said that voters in Idaho can vote their conscience, because Idaho’s predominantly Republican constituency will result in electoral votes going to Republican candidate George Bush - regardless of whether or not Nader takes votes away from Democrat Al Gore.

The local group gathered 130 signatures in support of Nader at the recent Bonner County Fair and sent them to the Commission on Presidential Debates, Ward said.

The meeting will be held in the Sandpoint Community Hall.