Congressional Black Caucus asks Nader to end campaign

WASHINGTON – Ralph Nader had a testy meeting Tuesday with black members of Congress and rejected their request that he quit the presidential race. At the same time, Arizona Democrats prepared to challenge Nader’s qualifications to appear on that state’s ballot as an independent candidate.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Jano Cabrera said Tuesday that the challenge would focus on the validity of thousands of signatures Nader’s supporters submitted to Arizona officials to get him on the ballot.

Cabrera stressed that the state party had not requested DNC resources and that any decision to challenge Nader’s ballot access rests with state officials. But he said the national party stands behind the effort in principle.

“We support our state party’s aim to validate the petition signatures in accordance with the state election law,” Cabrera said. He did not know the precise nature of the challenge or when it would be filed.

A spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party said officials had no immediate comment.

Democrats have complained that Nader’s candidacy will siphon liberal votes away from John Kerry, the party’s expected presidential nominee, and they have actively sought to discourage voters from supporting him. But this would be the first time that party officials in any state use formal means to try to remove Nader from a ballot.

“We have never been moved by Nader’s repeated assertions that it was Al Gore and not he who was at fault for the outcome of the 2000 election and apparently the Arizona Democrats seems unconvinced by his explanation as well,” Cabrera said.

Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said he was not aware of any basis for challenging the signatures, and urged Kerry to disavow such tactics.

“Kerry has the power to tell the Democratic party to stop, that’s for sure,” the spokesman said. “He certainly is the leader of the party so he has the power to say no. We’ll see if he has the courage to do that.”

Kerry campaign officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Nader is not yet on any state ballot. He has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, which has ballot lines in seven states, including the battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan. He also is seeking the endorsement of the Green Party, which has secured ballot access in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

Nader’s campaign submitted more than 22,000 signatures to Arizona election officials June 9 – far more than the 14,694 valid signatures required by state law to compete against President Bush and Kerry in Arizona.

That same day, Arizona Democratic Chairman Jim Pederson promised to examine the filing to determine whether the signatures are valid, if the petition drive was conducted properly and if the financing was reported accurately.

Nader met Tuesday with more than a dozen Congressional Black Caucus members, who asked him to drop out of the presidential race. Nader rejected the Democratic lawmakers’ request, as expected.

Shouts could be heard from inside the meeting, including Nader’s voice, in what initially proved to be a rancorous session. One female voice shouted, “You can’t win,” to which Nader shot back an inaudible response.

“It became abundantly clear to us that this was about Ralph Nader and we were sorely disappointed,” CBC Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md, said afterward. “If nothing else we believe we”ve had an impact on his conscience. Now we pray he’ll synchronize his conscience with his conduct.”

Nader dismissed the shouting as an “exciting exchange” between two sides with the same goal – the defeat of President Bush – but with different strategies for achieving it.