On August 6, the first court hearing was held in Ralph Nader’s case in Maine state court, suing the Democratic National Committee and many of its allied groups over the party’s coordinated campaign in 2004 to get Nader off the ballot in as many states as possible. See this story, which says the Maine state judge tentatively set a trial date of September 27.
Nader filed similar cases in Virginia and the District of Columbia in 2007, but they were consolidated into a single case in federal court, and then that case was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals on statute of limitations grounds. So, no trial was ever held in the earlier case. But Maine has a six-year statute of limitations, and Maine was one of the states in which the Democrats tried to get Nader off the ballot, so Nader filed a new case in Maine state court last year.
In another development on Nader’s battle against Democratic Party actions against him in 2004, a District of Columbia court (not a federal court) that is hearing the case on whether Pennsylvania Democrats should be permitted to seize Nader’s funds from his bank account in Washington, D.C., recently asked both sides for more details about what happened in Pennsylvania in 2004. Specifically, the judges asked for information about a Pennsylvania indictment of state employees for working on the Democratic Party challenge to Nader’s 2004 Pennsylvania petition.
I was not aware of this until I did some research about Ralph Nader as a result of his interview on c-span2 today.
On another note, I’ve never taken the time listen to his message. He certainly has a lot of facts and is someone you want to listen to. I will now read his books to learn as much as I can from him.
The documentary “Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man” is a good place to start. Really, regardless of political stripe, everyone should see this.
I’m glad Nader may be getting a trial. I think he should have used his campaign to push voting systems more, but he had every right to be on the ballot. The Democrats have shown how evil they are by doing this to him. I hope he makes an example out of those bastards.
Thanks Maine for finally allowing these crime to come to trial.
The DemocRATs along with their equally contemptuous Republican pals have succeeded in destroying our American democracy. Nader has long been a champion of American values and citizens rights and liberties. It’s a crime that the two main stream political parties have long mounted a campaign to silence and discredit one of America’s greatest political thinkers and an advocate for the common man.
Thank you so much Patti S., for your open mind and obvious intelligence.
This is really a travesty. I saw the interview of Ralph Nader on C-span 2. It was extraordinary. Let’s hope Mr. Nader wins this case.
Is there is hope for justice after all?
Give ’em hell Ralph.
i had forgotten about the “bonusgate” trial in Pa., which was partly related to Nader 2004; state employees on state time were paid to challenge Nader’s ballot access petitions. I don’t know if the quilty verticts were on these specific charges.
however, the leader of “bonusgate” was given a 6 to 14 yr sentence.
http://www.paindependent.com/todays_news/detail/mike-veon-given-6-14-years-in-prison
Grand Illusion by Teresa Amato (Nader’s campaign manager at the time) details the dirty tricks with the 2004 Nader campaign as victim. It is a very good read.