Questionnaire of Progressive Democrats for Nader Exploratory Committee

This questionnaire is no longer active. You may post your comments and we will make them available to any activist who would like to make a case to Mr. Nader. We collected 650 responses in December 2003 and presented the results to Mr. Nader in person at an event in Cambridge MA. His response indicated several ideas which future activists might consider:
  1. Nader responds to any statement against his running as questioning his right to free speech. One should acknowledge Nader's RIGHT to run while questioning whether it's a good IDEA to run.

  2. Nader has solid responses for all of the standard arguments against his running. Those arguments simply will not be heard. Those include: Nader was a spoiler; Nader cost Gore Florida; Nader votes would have gone to Gore; and variations on those themes.

  3. Nader does not consider progressive Democrats to be his constituents, despite that the majority of his votes in 2000 came from that group (because his vote total well exceeded the total number of Green Party registrants in the country). While Nader politely declined this argument, the standard Green Party response is "You don't count in Nader's decision if you're a Democrat." Hence that argument is ineffective.

  4. Nader considers the most important factor in his decision to be: Will a Nader candidacy help or hurt local Green candidates? We had two Green candidates at the meeting with Nader. One, Rich Zitola, is a standard Green candidate running for State Senate against a good progressive Democrat, who says, "Your candidacy will help me recruit more Greens because they will be excited about you." The other, Jill Stein, who was the Green nominee for Governor in 2002, is running against a conservative Democrat and has a reasonable chance of winning. She says, "Your candidacy will hurt mine because people will be unable to get past the 'spoiler' issue. If I can get beyond that issue, I can persuade people to vote for me based on the issues -- but with you running, I can't get beyond that issue." The key difference in these two candidates is that Zitola is running to build the party while Stein is running to win her election. Nader listened intently to both sides -- I believe he would not run if Stein's argument were repeated by others. Conclusion: If we can find a dozen Green candidates for local office who will tell Nader that his candidacy will hurt their chances of winning, Nader will listen.

Original Questionnaire

Ralph Nader has established an Exploratory Committee and is seeking opinions on a possible 2004 run. We want to make sure that Mr. Nader hears from real progressive Democrats on what they think -- so we are running the same survey ourselves. We will present the preliminary results personally to Mr. Nader at an official Exploratory Committee event in Boston on Dec. 21, and will make follow-up results available to those who attend similar events thereafter.

The survey below is identical to the Nader Exploratory Committee survey, except that question #4 refers to us instead of them, and except that we will seek the opinions of Democrats who support progressive causes. To comment further, please participate in the Ralph Nader Forum from which we will also present comments to Mr. Nader.

Questions marked with a * are required.

*1. Would you support a Ralph Nader candidacy for President regardless of who the Democrats or Republicans nominate?
Yes
No
 
2. Is there any declared candidate for President that if they were to win the nomination would make you unlikely to support a Ralph Nader candidacy?
Yes
No
If yes, whom?: 
Other:  
3. Have you ever, or would you vote for a third party or independent candidate?
Yes
No
*4. May we provide your name and town to the Nader 2004 Presidential Exploratory Committee? (not your contact info: privacy policy below)
Yes
No
Please feel free to express your opinion further in the box below:

Please provide contact information only if you answered 'Yes' to question 4, or fill in your e-mail if you would like to be kept posted on the results of this survey. Contact info will NOT be provided to the Nader campaign under any circumstances.
First Name:
Last Name:
Gender:
Male Female
Street Address:
City:
State:
ZIP:
Email:
Daytime Phone:
Evening Phone:
Occupation:

Paid for by Jesse Gordon and Eric Weltman, with no organizational affiliation to the Nader campaign.
Both Jesse and Eric are registered Democrats in Cambridge Massachusetts.
Jesse is an Associate Member of the Cambridge Democratic City Committee.


PRIVACY POLICY: We will not provide your contact info to the Nader campaign. If you give us permission, we will use your name and town (no e-mail, no address, no phone) in our survey results booklet presented to the Nader campaign. If you provide a valid e-mail address, we will e-mail you about the results of this survey and related information (but no spam, and no commercial use ever).

Contact: (617) 320-6989
1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 021400
jesse@RalphDontRun.us