Sara Michael, The Examiner
2008-08-05 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Ralph Nader campaign workers turned in nearly 23,000 signatures to the Maryland State Board of Elections on Monday to form a new Independent Party and put their candidate on the November ballot in the state.

“They just want to have a voice,” Nader’s Maryland coordinator Tom Shields said of Nader supporters.

Nader, who is running as an Independent, needed at least 10,000 registered voters’ signatures to form a political party in Maryland and get his name on the ballot.

Maryland became the 23rd state to put Nader on the November ballot Monday, and the campaign expects to have 30 states by the end of the week and 45 by the end of the summer, Nader spokeswoman Loralynn Krobetzky said.

Nader, 74, began his 2008 presidential bid in February, calling for a full troop withdrawal from Iraq, single-payer health care and an end to nuclear energy.

He ran as the Green Party candidate in 2000 and was a Populist Party candidate on the ballot in Maryland in 2004.

Political parties must get at least 1 percent of the vote in a gubernatorial election to be recognized in Maryland. Without those votes, the party must submit petitions, said Jared DeMarinis, director of candidacy and campaign finance at the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Three other minority parties submitted petitions by Monday’s deadline — the Green, Libertarian and Constitutional parties, DeMarinis said.

Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Maryland.

Although the Independents are rallying behind Nader this year, the larger goal is for an additional party in the state, Krobetzky said.

“This is about building a movement,” she said.

Nader’s candidacy hasn’t generated as much buzz as in past years and won’t take votes from presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, said Quincey Gamble, executive director of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Maryland GOP Executive Director Justin Ready welcomed Nader to the ballot, saying he looked forward “to seeing what they add to the debate.”

“I think Independents already had a pretty good home with [Republican presumptive nominee] John McCain, but we will certainly see what happens,” he said.

smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com