-Caveat Lector-
I couldn't even find this at CNN.com, which usually runs everything from the
wire services. My father-in-law, who went to hear Nader, said there was zilch
in the Twin Cities media, despite the fact that the crowd was the biggest yet
for the Green Party candidates.
=============================================================
SEPTEMBER 23, 00:17 EDT
Nader Touts Agriculture Plan
By ASHLEY H. GRANT
Associated Press Writer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) - More than 12,000 people filled the Target Center
sports arena Friday night, paying $7 each to hear presidential hopeful Ralph
Nader denounce the major party candidates and call for social justice.
Nader said the crowd was proof his candidacy should be taken seriously - and
that he should be allowed to participate in debates with Republican candidate
George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
``This is the largest gathering of paying citizens of the entire year,'' for a
Nader event the Green Party candidate told the raucous crowd, which shouted,
whistled and waved placards that said, ``Let Ralph debate!''
Nader's running mate, Winona LaDuke - who lives on the White Earth Reservation
in northern Minnesota - spoke about generational justice and the environment,
and how she and Nader would make the world a better place.
``We will not be taken for granted, and we will vote,'' she said.
Earlier Friday, Nader proposed shifting control of U.S. agriculture away from
corporate conglomerates and back toward the family farmer.
``By weakening the stranglehold agribusiness has on the food industry, we will
be able to increase farm gate prices and competition, which will consequently
reduce food costs for consumers,'' he said.
Nader billed the Target Center event a ``super rally'' and hoped it would draw a
large audience to raise money and build support for his inclusion in the
presidential debates.
His farm plan calls for stronger enforcement of antitrust laws, prohibition of
meatpacker ownership of livestock production facilities and allowing American
farmers to grow industrial hemp.
Next to him on a table during a news conference sat a pile of 18,000 signatures
of Minnesotans requesting that Nader be included in the debates.
The Minnesota stop was the second of four major rallies. The first, in Portland,
Ore., was nearly as large as Friday's event, selling out with 10,000 tickets at
$7 apiece.
The last time Nader visited Minnesota, he held a smaller rally at the University
of Minnesota that drew a packed house of 1,400 and raised about $17,000.
It's an unusual way for a presidential candidate to raise money, but Nader says
the rallies are the best way to show how serious he is.
``We have to demonstrate that we can draw far greater audiences,'' Nader said.
Before Nader spoke, volunteers passed cardboard collection boxes up and down the
aisles of the crowded arena. At least two people donated $1,000, and several
others donated $500. Nearly everyone seemed to donate something.
``We're gonna bang our spoons until we get Ralph in the debates,'' shouted
former talk show host Phil Donahue, who spoke before Nader took the stage.
Nader cited Minnesota as an example of a state on the cutting edge of what
should be done to spur more voter participation.
Three things - debate access, public financing and same-day voter registration -
helped Gov. Jesse Ventura get elected, and Nader thinks those principles should
be emulated by other states.
``Those three factors should be the law of the land,'' he said, adding that
``campaign finance reform is the boulder on the highway to justice.''
Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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