• Green Party candidate garners 2 to 3 percent of nation's popular vote
By JASON McFARLEY
Assistant News Editor
Ralph Nader's failed presidential bid Tuesday won't keep his name out of the history books.
With the votes the Green Party nominee received, he may have become the first third-party candidate to possibly cost a major-party candidate the election, according to some.
Although Nader only received about 2 to 3 percent of the nationwide presidential vote Tuesday, he took votes from Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore in key battleground states, said Notre Dame sociology professor Robert Fishman. In particular, Nader's showing in Florida may have handed George W. Bush the presidency.
"In effect, Nader has hurt Gore. He's handed the presidency to George Bush," Fishman said.
As of 5 a.m. today, that had yet to be determined.
The initial announcement of Bush as President-elect came around 2:20 a.m. today, shortly after the Texas governor received Florida's 25 electoral votes. Just prior to the announcement, campaign strategists' projections indicated that the candidate — either Bush or Gore — who won Florida would win the election.
By 3:30 a.m., major television networks had rescinded their earlier predictions about Florida, deeming the race too close to call.
With nearly all precincts reporting, Bush appeared to have won the popular vote in Florida by some 200 votes over Gore. Nader's 3 percent showing in the state represented about 95,000 votes.
"As far as making any strides or statements, that's irrelevant. Nader's campaign will to little more than usher Bush into office," Fishman said.
Polls seemed to indicate that Nader may have impeded a Gore win Tuesday. According to a CNN exit poll conducted in Oregon Tuesday, 61 percent of Nader supporters would have voted for Gore had the Green Party leader not run. The poll showed that only 10 percent would have voted for Bush and that 24 percent wouldn't have voted at all.
Fishman isn't surprised. He said Gore and Nader tend to attract the same types of voters — people interested in social and environmental issues.
"Those who feel racial discrimination may have agreed with Gore's views and voted for him; or they may have voted for Nader. It's a similar situation with the environment, and both believe that corporate power should be restrained," said Fishman, who noted that issues such as abortion and gun control may have also been blurred the line between the candidates' views.
The difference between the men is that "Nader gathers votes to the left of Gore and also the middle-of-the-road people," Fishman said. "Nader goes to greater lengths than Gore."
While some Democrats complained prior to the election Tuesday that Nader's campaign would hurt Gore's chances, Nader appealed to supporters to "vote their conscience," even in states with close races between Gore and Bush, the Associated Press reported today.
"You can't spoil a system spoiled to the core," Nader told a standing-room crowd in the ballroom of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Tuesday.
Nader failed Tuesday to collect the 5 percent of the national vote needed to qualify for federal campaign funds in the 2004 elections. But he may have also played a factor in races between the major-party front-runners in Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire — states predicted to have been won by Bush Tuesday.
Nader, who made it a point throughout his campaign to blast the other candidates for their seemingly similar, moderate views, denied accusations that his candidacy might dictate the outcome of the election.
"I did not run for president to help elect one or the other of the two major candidates," Nader told the Associated Press earlier Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
All News Stories for Wednesday, November 8, 2000
