http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRe7-1GipomU41w-Gp2uGsR3P__AD8V3G1U03
Nader Picks Matt Gonzalez As Veep
By ANN SANNER -- 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader
selected Matt Gonzalez, a former member of the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors, to be his running mate.
"I want someone who shares my sense of justice and opposition to
corporate state control over our society," Nader said Thursday at a news
conference announcing his choice. Nader launched his White House bid
last weekend.
The Texas-born Gonzalez ran for mayor of San Francisco as a Green Party
candidate in 2003 but lost to Gavin Newsom.
Gonzalez said he recognized the difficulties of winning the presidential
election.
"I have no illusions about what's happening here today," Gonzalez said.
"But let me also say that I've never entered a political contest with
the idea that it couldn't be won."
Nader, the longtime consumer advocate, sought the White House in each of
the last three presidential elections: He ran on the Green Party ticket
in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent in 2004.
On Thursday, he said he would not be seeking the Green Party nomination,
noting that the party has four announced candidates.
"We think that there is plenty of room in this country for parallel
progressive candidates," he said.
Nader is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and
claim his candidacy in 2000 cost Democrats the election by siphoning
votes from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida. Nader has
vociferously disputed the spoiler claim, saying only Democrats are to
blame for losing the race to George W. Bush.
Though he won 2.7 percent of the national vote as the Green Party
candidate in 2000, Nader won just 0.3 percent as an independent in 2004,
when he appeared on the ballot in only 34 states.