Nader won’t back off White House run even if top candidates tied

RALPH NADER, blamed by Democrats for attracting votes that would have seen Al Gore beat George W Bush to the White House, said yesterday he won’t back off from his latest campaign for president even if the major candidates are tied in polls going into election day.

A possible repeat of the 2000 election, where Mr Bush defeated Mr Al Gore by razor-thin margins in states where Mr Nader polled thousands of votes, did not deter Mr Nader from declaring his candidacy.

He suggested a close race might be more detrimental to the president than the Democratic nominee.

"I'd go after Bush even more vigorously, in ways that the Democrats can't because they're too cautious and too unimaginative, but they can pick up the vulnerabilities and the failures of the Bush administration that we point out," Mr Nader said yesterday.

He rejects the spoiler label as a "contemptuous" term used by those who want to deny voters a choice. Declaring Washington a "corporate-occupied territory," he accuses both Democrats and Republicans of being dominated by corporate lobbyists.

"We've got to give people more voices and choices," Mr Nader told ABC. "And let me tell you, with 100 million people not voting, we've got to give them more voices, choices, more exciting involvement and participation."

Mr Nader, who turns 70 this week, was to lay out his campaign themes including universal health care, campaign finance reform, fighting poverty and addressing environmental concerns late last night at a press conference in Washington.