On November 30, 2009, Ralph Nader filed a new legal attack on the Democratic National Committee, and other elements of the party, over its attempts to keep him off the ballot in 18 states in 2004. Nader had filed a similar lawsuit in Virginia in 2007, which had been transferred to the District of Columbia. But that case was dismissed in 2009 on the basis that D.C. has a 3-year statute of limitations. The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, ruled that Nader should have filed the case a few months before he actually filed it.
So, Nader refiled the case in Maine state courts last year. Maine has a six-year statute of limitations. Now the Democratic Party has responded to the Maine lawsuit. The party argues various procedural points, for example, that the case has already been adjudicated, and that the Maine court lacks jurisdiction. Maine is one of the states in which the Democratic National Committee was active in challenging Nader’s ballot status. Nader is hoping that the Maine court will finally permit him to present evidence.
For those progressives who now feel sold out by the Obama administration, the story of the Democrat’s attack on anti-war candidate Nader will add more fuel to their
fire. Censoring Nader is a mainstay of Democratic politics.
As I recall hearing in year 2000, Nader wanted to run earlier than his write-in candidacy in ’96 but had been discouraged by Democrats who said, each time he conferred with the leadership about it, that “the time isn’t right yet”. I assume he finally realized they had no use for an Independent, and have made it plain more recently that there is to be no apology or recant for their treatment of him in 2000 and 2004. That is too bad. It means the party has lost its former dignity and sense of fair play.