You know, I'm generally in favor of making it easier for third-party and independent candidates to get on the ballot, so maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite for saying this. But man, am I glad that world-class attention whore Ralph Nader won't be on the ballot in Texas this election cycle:
Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader won't be on the ballot in Texas this November. In fact, Mr. Nader says, he didn't really try because the state's two-party system stacks the deck against third-party challengers.
But Texas election officials reject Mr. Nader's assertion, pointing to Kinky Friedman's and Carole Strayhorn's independent gubernatorial campaigns against incumbent Rick Perry in 2006. All it takes to get on the ballot in Texas is a demonstration of support from state voters, they said.
Mr. Nader said it would have been too difficult and costly to gather the almost 44,000 signatures needed to appear on Texas ballots as a third-party candidate. To run as an independent would require more than 74,000 signatures.
He estimated that getting on the ballot would have cost $300,000. That's nearly half of the roughly $674,000 his campaign raised through the end of April.
"Once again the two parties have denied voters in Texas their choice of candidate because we would have had quite a few voters in Texas," he said.
Mr. Nader also cited Texas' requirement that signatures come from voters who haven't already participated in either party's primary.
Nader is right on the merits - I think it's unfair to prohibit people who have voted in primaries from signing ballot petitions for third-party and independent candidates. I don't know what the cutoff point for ballot access should be as far as the number/percentage of voters is concerned - 44,000 and 74,000 both seem somewhat reasonable in a state the size of Texas, though I think it's wrong that independent candidates have to get more signatures than third parties do. But Nader has all but stated that the only reason he's running is to cause the Democratic candidate to lose, because he operates under the deluded notion that both parties are equally corrupt and beholden to corporate interests, and are essentially the same on the issues. The Democrats aren't perfect, but they're a far cry better than the Republicans. And by running every four years, Nader is doing the work of the Republicans, all because he is starved for public attention. Ralph, there are much more productive ways to get people's attention. Like stripping naked, painting yourself blue, and streaking through the downtown area of a major metropolitan city. You won't look any more crazy, and you might even get a few chuckles, which is far better than you'd get if, by some quirk of fate, you actually caused Barack Obama to lose. Believe me, Ralphie boy, we are not fucking around this election cycle. I feel bad saying this, because I think that liberalism, the Democratic party, and the American political system would all benefit by having more viable third parties and independent candidates on all sides of the political spectrum in this country. But not Ralph Nader, and definitely not in 2008.
Fortunately, it looks like Texas isn't the only state where Nader will be missing from the ballot:
Mr. Nader and his running mate, McAllen native Matt Gonzalez, are not yet on the ballot in any of the states, many of which have petition deadlines in July and August.
He won't be on the ballot in North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana or Oklahoma. He said those states have short deadlines, traditions of arbitrarily disqualifying petition signatures and tough signature requirements.
His campaign is confident that it already has enough signatures to get on the ballot in Hawaii, New Mexico and Arizona.
I doubt that Nader will do any better this time around than he did in 2004, and he was a non-factor then. Whatever votes he does manage to take from Obama will be more than offset by the votes that Libertarian candidate Bob Barr takes from McCain. And anything can happen between now and November - who knows, maybe the fundies will put up a strong third-party candidate who can snag even more votes from McCain.
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