Former Campaign Manager Theresa Amato’s new book “Grand Illusion” details McAuliffe’s efforts to knock Nader out of the 2004 Presidential Election
In her soon-to-be-released book, Grand Illusion, The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny (The New Press 2009), lawyer Theresa Amato charges that on June 23, 2004, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe promised unspecified “resources” to Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign, if Nader would agree not to run in 19 so-called “battleground” states. Chairman McAuliffe also said that the DNC supported litigation to remove Nader from the ballot in those states, including a lawsuit filed in Arizona that same day.
Read on for the text of the letter.
The following is a letter sent this morning to McAuliffe from Ralph Nader:
June 2, 2009
Terry McAuliffe
c/o Friends of Terry McAuliffe
PO Box 778
McLean, VA 22101
Dear Mr. McAuliffe:
When the Watergate scandal cost Richard M. Nixon his White House tenure in 1974, it was observed that it was not the crime (burglary by his supporters of the DNC Watergate suite) that cost Nixon but the subsequent cover-up.
I was reminded of that comment on watching the ABC 7 News segment last Friday which reported your unnamed senior campaign strategist denying the fact that in 2004 you offered to help our campaign with resources in 31 states if we stayed out of the 19 other closer states between Bush and Kerry. Your words were “if you stay out of my 19 states I will help with resources in 31 states.” You also said that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) which you chaired at the time was supporting litigation to remove Nader/Camejo from the ballot in state after state.
When reporters called you last week for a response you did not respond directly on the first day-which one reporter said was very uncharacteristic of your habit of returning calls. On the second day-the time of the ABC 7 report-you had your campaign strategist say what was not true-generally denying the contents of your telephone conversation. You put your campaign associate in the position of speaking for you and engaging in a fabrication. Falsely denying what you said is a deficiency that does not comport with what is a public trust as Governor which is the office you are seeking. You owe your associate and the public an apology.
To further ground the veracity of your proposal in 2004, I am enclosing the relevant pages in Theresa Amato’s book–Grand Illusion–that contains the specifics of your conversation down to the named states you selected, among numerous other details.
We look forward to your correcting the record.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
Enclosures-4 pages
PO Box 19312
Washington, D.C. 20036
“Stay out of my 19 states.”
In Grand Illusion, Amato, the national manager of Nader’s lightning-rod 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, recounts how, after Nader rebuffed Chairman McAuliffe’s offer, the DNC and its state party affiliates embarked on an effort, unprecedented in U.S. history, to force Nader out of the 2004 presidential election. Amato says McAuliffe repeated over and over during a conversation: “Stay out of 19 states.”
McAuliffe’s 2004 attempt to confine Nader to 31 states, revealed an exclusionary and censorious Terry McAuliffe that is hard to reconcile with gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe’s professed support for ballot access and democratic participation as a candidate in Virginia’s 2009 Democratic gubernatorial primary.
Earlier this year, candidate McAuliffe told WTOP radio’s Mark Plotkin that “anyone is entitled to run for office,” and “the more people who run for office, the better it is.” McAuliffe’s campaign blog also claims that he stands for “getting people engaged in the democratic process.”
“Terry McAuliffe the candidate is not the Terry McAuliffe I knew as Chairman of the DNC in 2004″ says Amato.
“Candidate McAuliffe claims to fight for voter rights and against disenfranchisement,” Amato notes, “but McAuliffe’s DNC attempted to deny millions of voters their free choice of voting for Ralph Nader and Peter Miguel Camejo during the 2004 presidential election.”
“Such a contrast invites explanation at the very least,” says Christina Tobin, chairman of Free and Equal Elections. “Perhaps candidate McAuliffe would now make amends by pledging to support free and equal elections and one reasonable federal standard for ballot access for federal office for all parties.”
Pennsylvania was among the hotly-contested 2004 states where the Democrats and their allies successfully strong-armed Nader off the ballot. In 2008, as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation, the Pennsylvania Attorney General has charged 12 members or employees of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus with using taxpayer money and resources for improper political purposes–including keeping 2004 Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader off the state’s ballot. Criminal charges against the Pennsylvania state workers are still pending.
Part personal memoir, part political history, part exposé and part impassioned call for electoral reform, Grand Illusion provides a blow-by-blow account of some of the 24 harassing complaints that the Democrats and their allies filed within 12 weeks to remove Nader from the ballot in 18 states. At least 95 lawyers from 53 law firms nationwide joined the effort to stifle Nader’s insurgent campaign.
Nader prevailed in most states, but Grand Illusion will make citizens wonder: How democratic is an electoral process that forces millions of American voters to choose between just two parties, while freezing out competing candidacies and new ideas?
To prevent such abuse and manipulation of the electoral process in the future, in Grand Illusion Amato proposes a number of practical and easy-to-implement reforms, to replace 50 different, and in some cases discriminatory state ballot access laws. Amato also recounts details of behind-the-scenes conversations with presidential candidate John Kerry, and with Howard Dean, who followed McAuliffe as DNC chairman.
Nader filed a federal lawsuit in 2007 and an FEC complaint in 2008 against McAuliffe, the DNC and others who helped finance and coordinate the attempt to suppress Nader’s 2004 presidential candidacy. Both actions are still pending.
