Edition: U.S. / Global

COUNTING THE VOTE: THE GREEN PARTY; Nader Sees Greens Building Status as a Major Party

Published: November 18, 2000

Ralph Nader, who drew 2.8 million votes 3 percent of the total -- as the Green Party's presidential candidate, contended today that the Green Party was the fastest growing in the nation and would achieve major-party status within 12 years.

Mr. Nader told reporters at a luncheon here that he had not decided whether to run again in 2004. Until that year, he said, he would concentrate on building the party and fielding Congressional candidates in 2002.

''We're building a party for the future,'' he said. ''Obviously, there are a lot of open slots in the Green Party.''

Mr. Nader said the Democratic Party might be able to thwart the growth of the Greens ''if they face left'' instead of continuing to drift to the center. Democrats will never successfully ''out-Republican the Republicans,'' he said.

Mr. Nader also said he remained untroubled by the possibility that Gov. George W. Bush of Texas would become president because the Green Party took votes away from Vice President Al Gore. If Mr. Bush prevails, he said, his very narrow margin, the closely divided Congress and Mr. Bush's own personality will limit the damage he can do.

''He doesn't know very much,'' Mr. Nader said of Mr. Bush. ''He is not very energetic. He doesn't like controversy.''

Under either Mr. Bush or Mr. Gore, he said, the nation would face ''four more years of ignoring systemic injustice.'' Under Mr. Gore, he said, that failure would be even less acceptable ''because he knows more'' but ''he cowers again and again.''

Mr. Nader predicted that success for the Green Party would follow greater understanding of the reality of the nation's economic situation. ''Most people in this country are broke,'' he said.

''This is an economy that's very good for the top 10 percent,'' he continued. ''A lot of the country is in real decay.''

He said that people responded to polls by saying they were better off than they were some years ago because families held two or three jobs, and that 47 million Americans were making less than $10 an hour.

The single most important thing to do to improve the circumstances of working men and women, Mr. Nader said, is to encourage unionization. He said Congress should change the labor laws so that if a majority of workers at a factory signed up for a union, they would have one, without having to go through an election period.

Now, he said, employers can fire pro-union workers with no real cost. At worst they have to give the workers back pay minus whatever they had earned, he said, and it usually takes more than three years to make such a case before the National Labor Relations Board.

Mr. Nader complained that the news media had covered his campaign only in terms of its effect on the Gore-Bush race.

Although he raised issues, like lobbyists' dominance in Washington, that had been explored by serious newspapers, ''I was not asked any questions about any of the substance,'' he said. ''It was all the horse race.''