Conservative Organizations Accused of Aiding Nader Illegally

Watchdog Group Complains About Nader Aid


WASHINGTON - A watchdog group says it will file a complaint with federal election officials, accusing two conservative organizations of illegally helping Ralph Nader (news - web sites)'s presidential campaign, possibly with support from President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election campaign.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington planned to file its complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission (news - web sites). It says the Oregon Family Council and Citizens for a Sound Economy violated election laws last week by telephoning people and urging them to help Nader get on Oregon's ballot in November.

Spokesmen for both groups denied wrongdoing.

Both groups acknowledge trying to influence Nader's petition drive Saturday in Oregon, in hopes that getting him on the ballot would take votes away from Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) and help Bush win the battleground state.

But Melanie Sloan, the watchdog group's executive director, said Tuesday that the conservative organizations are also corporations that are prohibited by election law from making campaign donations.

Sloan said she also would name the Nader and Bush campaigns in her complaint because of reports that some Bush-Cheney volunteers may have made similar calls from Bush campaign offices.

"If Bush-Cheney was soliciting those corporations to assist the Nader campaign, then that's a violation," she said.

Mike White, executive director of the Oregon Family Council, said there was no coordination with Bush's campaign.

"I had my volunteers call and encourage them to go to the (Nader) convention, but I don't think that's federal election activity," he said.

Chris Kinnan, spokesman for Citizens for a Sound Economy, said an outside lawyer assured him the phone calls were proper. "We're confident that we can answer any charge," he said.

Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said he had not seen the complaint but called it "frivolous."

"We will respond accordingly if and when we receive it," Stanzel said.

Sloan's group also filed an FEC complaint against Nader last week saying the consumer advocate violated federal campaign laws by accepting office space and telephone service from a public charity he created. Nader has called all the complaints frivolous.

Boston's police union will host its own party for the 5,000 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, giving them an alternative to crossing promised picket lines at the 29 official welcoming parties.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who is locked in a bitter contract dispute with the union, is the official host of the parties, to be held throughout the city on July 25, the eve of the four-day convention.

The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association has been without a contract for two years.

Union picket lines outside the FleetCenter, site of the July 26-29 convention, delayed renovations to the sports arena and deterred Kerry from addressing a national mayors' conference this week.

"We want to give them an alternative to breaking bread with an anti-labor mayor," Jim Barry, the union's legislative agent, said of their counterparty. Invitations were being sent to delegates this week.

Menino's office did not return a telephone call for comment Tuesday. He has said he cannot give the union money the city doesn't have. Menino has offered an 11.9 percent raise over four years; the union's demand is closer to 17 percent.

Both sides are awaiting word from a mediator who sat down with them twice this month.

Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie says Democrats are trying to act as though good economic developments aren't really happening.

"They long ago came to the cynical conclusion that what's worse for the American people is what's best for them politically," Gillespie said in remarks prepared for delivery Tuesday night at a GOP fund-raiser in Portland, Ore.

Gillespie said the positive economic developments include the creation of more than 1.4 million new jobs in the last nine months and the highest levels of home ownership in the nation's history.

"As we emerge from a recession, the terror attacks of 9/11 and the impact of bad corporate actors, the economic growth we are experiencing is strong and durable," he said.