Nader Names A Green Running Mate

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader selected longtime Green Party activist Peter Camejo to be his running mate on Monday, a move sure to boost his chances of winning the Green Party's endorsement this week and its access to ballot lines in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

"He is a man who has put his principles in practice, who has fought the struggles of the civil rights movement, the labor rights movement in the '60s and '70s, who has in many ways been an exemplar of the combination of the mind, the word and the deed," Nader said in introducing Camejo.

Camejo, an investment adviser from Folsom, Calif., had been one of two leading contenders for the Green Party's presidential nomination.

"I think the central issue of this campaign is the war in Iraq," Camejo said. "All of you know (Democrat John) Kerry is complaining about how Bush has carried out the invasion and the occupation but not what he keeps doing."

The announcement came before the Green Party convention beginning Wednesday in Milwaukee. Nader, who ran as the Green Party candidate in 2000, is not seeking the party's nomination but he has pursued an endorsement from the third party.

"Camejo shares my concerns for economic and social justice as well as the urgent need to protect our environment," Nader said in a statement before introducing him at an afternoon news conference.

One Green Party leader said a Nader-Camejo ticket would have a very strong chance of winning the party's endorsement.

"This is an opportunity for Nader to make an overture to the party membership," said Ben Manski, one of five co-chairs of the Green Party. "I think it certainly would put him much more in the running but not a guarantee."

Scott McClarty, spokesman for the Green Party, took Nader's decision a step further, telling CBS News' Clothilde Ewing that Nader's decision is "good news for the party and the Nader campaign." According to McClarty, Camejo is a very popular member of the Party and Nader's decision will help his chances to win the endorsement.

Nader also has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, which gives him access to the ballot in at least seven states, including the battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan.

All this is trouble, of course, for Democrat John Kerry, who fears Nader could siphon votes from him the same way he did from Al Gore four years ago, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.

Camejo received more than 212,000 votes as the Green Party candidate for California governor during the 2003 recall drive that led to the ouster of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and the election of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nearly 400,000 people voted for Camejo in 2002 when Davis was re-elected.

As for being a spoiler, Camejo doesn't agree, "The American people are tired of having to vote against a candidate instead of for one," he said. He calls Ralph Nader a historic figure and credits him with his own success in California and the success of the Green Party over the last four years. Nader also chimed in on the issue as it pertained to Kerry, "I think he's got just the right take. He's got to earn his vote," Nader said.

Nader was polling about 6 percent nationally, according to a recent Associated Press poll conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs. The consumer advocate has raised just under $1 million and spent nearly all of it, starting June with about $73,000 in the bank and just under $25,000 in debts, according to the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The Green Party has ballot access for a presidential candidate in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Camejo is hoping to convince the Green Party to join a "unity" deal, in which the party would endorse both Nader and David Cobb, the other leading candidate. The decision on which candidate would get the ballot line, would then be up to the Green Party in each individual state.

Camejo ran for president as the Socialist Workers Party in 1976.

As a gubernatorial candidate in California, Camejo supported abortion rights, gun licensing, universal health care and a moratorium on the death penalty.

An environmental activist, Camejo has been a director of EarthShare, a coalition of more than 40 major environmental groups. In his campaign for governor, he supported greater use of alternative fuel technology and issuing a bond for clean air, parks and water conservation programs. He also called for phasing out nuclear power plants and for a ban on all oil drilling along the California coast.

Camejo, 64, was born in New York and is a first-generation Venezuelan American. A biography provided by the Nader campaign said Camejo was a social activist in his teens and marched in Selma, Ala., with Martin Luther King Jr. He also protested the Vietnam War and supported labor protests by migrant farm workers.

In 1987, Camejo founded the Progressive Asset Management of California, an investment firm that seeks what it considers to be socially responsible companies in which to invest. He is chairman of its board of directors. From 1999 to 2002 Camejo was the county-appointed trustee of the Contra Costa County Employees Retirement Association.