AUBURN – In the 2000 presidential election, Matt Reading, 22, of Auburn, voted for Ralph Nader. Reading, a member of the Green Party, and other Maine Greens say they aren’t going down that road this November.

Out of “an overwhelming fear” of George Bush getting re-elected, many will vote for Democrat John Kerry, predicted Heather Garrold, who co-chairs the Maine Green Independent Party.

“Bush has ballooned the deficit,” Reading said. “He’s rolled back protections on working people and the environment, and depressed our stature in the world.”

Many people feel Nader, the Green Party’s presidential candidate in 2000, was a spoiler in the close election between Al Gore and Bush, and they blame Nader supporters for handing Bush the victory.

It’s a tough time to be a Green, Reading acknowledged. Nader isn’t on the Green ticket this time, but he’s still out there, running as an independent. Some Greens remain loyal to Nader, crediting him for building the party. Others will vote for the Green presidential ticket of David Cobb of Texas and Patricia LaMarche of Maine.

But party members and analysts alike predict most Greens will support Kerry because they don’t want the unintended consequence of helping Bush.

Even LaMarche, of Yarmouth, who will be on the November ballot as the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate, is not telling her followers to vote for herself and Cobb, an unusual campaign style that some Greens are criticizing.

Instead, she and her party are urging voters to support the Green presidential ticket only in “safe states” where the outcome is predictable. Safe states include New York, a Democratic stronghold likely to go for Kerry, and Texas, where Bush is expected to win.

In battleground states like Maine “we’re encouraging them to search their souls,” LaMarche said. “President Bush is a threat to the world and needs to go,” she said. “Kerry doesn’t have the lethal potential Bush has.”

If Bush is re-elected, the Iraq invasion, environmental protection and corporate scandals would go from bad to worse, LaMarche said. “Other countries would say (of Americans), That’s what they wanted.'”

Asked who she will vote for, LaMarche said that because she lives in the First Congressional District, where, she believes, Kerry will win in a landslide, “I have the luxury” of voting for Cobb and herself. But, if she lived in Lewiston or anywhere in the Second District, where the race is expected to be close, LaMarche said she’d vote for Kerry.

Even Jonathan Carter, a former Green gubernatorial candidate, said he’s in the “anybody-but-Bush-camp.” Who he votes for will depend on whether Kerry is leading Bush in Maine in the polls near election time. Now, Kerry is leading by 12 percent in Maine so it would be safe to vote for Cobb or Nader, Carter said. “But that could change,” he warned.

Carter likes Nader and signed a letter encouraging him to get on the Maine ballot. Carter also likes Cobb and LaMarche. He said he may vote for Nader, or Cobb or, if the race is tight, “maybe for Kerry. But I’ll be holding my nose.”

No worries

Spokesmen for the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns in Maine have the same response to Nader getting on the Maine ballot: Their candidate will win regardless.

“In Maine, there’s a groundswell of support for John Kerry. Ralph Nader is not going to influence that,” said Jesse Derris of the Kerry-Edwards campaign in Maine.

“Regardless of who’s on the ballot, our campaign is not going to change,” said Kevin Madden of the Bush-Cheney campaign. The Bush campaign will focus on how Bush has made the country safer against terrorism and how he will continue to improve the economy, Madden said.

Nationally, Nader’s campaign is complaining about alleged dirty tricks by Democrats to keep Nader off the ballot. In some states where a convention vote was needed to nominate Nader, Democrats posing as Nader supporters took seats and then refused to vote for him. In other states, Democrats hired lawyers to go over petition signatures, challenging some names as invalid and thwarting democracy, complained Forrest Hill of the Nader campaign in California.

“None of that is happening in Maine,” Derris said.

Meanwhile Democrats have complained that Republicans are donating money to Nader’s campaign hoping he’ll get on ballots and pull votes from Kerry, thereby helping to elect Bush. Madden said he doesn’t know who is donating to Nader in Maine.

Republicans giving money to Nader “has been overblown,” said Hill. “We’re talking individual donations, not corporations.” He estimated that out of Nader’s $2 million nationally, $23,000 came from Republican donors.

Like several Maine Greens, one political pundit predicted if Nader is on Maine’s ballot, he’ll get fewer than the 37,127 votes he received in 2000.

Nationally, “Some voted for Nader thinking Gore would win anyway,” said James Melcher, professor of political science at the University of Maine at Farmington. Now they feel bad that Bush got elected. “And the anger on the left is so strongly at Bush.”

After 2000 election, some Greens quit

Compared to other states, the Green Party in Maine is successful. The Greens are a legitimate party in Maine, unlike in many states. While dwarfed by the number of Democrats, Republicans and unenrolled, there are more than 16,000 registered Maine Greens.

Maine was the first state to have a Green Party candidate elected to the Legislature, state Rep. John Eder of Portland. Like LaMarche, Eder is urging Green members to vote for Kerry unless it appears the Massachusetts senator has a big lead in Maine. “Then, vote your conscience,” he said.

This year, a record 22 Green candidates are running for the State House. And both Carter and LaMarche led credible gubernatorial campaigns that helped increase the party’s exposure and numbers.

But a few former Greens recently interviewed said they were so upset by Bush’s victory in 2002 that they quit the party and became Democrats. One was Kevin Simpson of Auburn, who said he didn’t want the Greens putting anyone on the ballot.

After leaving the Greens, Simpson supported Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. When the Ohio congressman didn’t become the Democratic nominee, Simpson stayed a Democrat and is supporting Kerry.

“I want the present occupant of the White House removed, and put someone with brains in there,” Simpson said. “I feel comfortable with Kerry. In Vietnam he put his life on the line. He led men into battle” and later founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War. “He cared about what happened to people,” something Simpson considers character. “But both brains and heart are missing in Bush,” he said.

Simpson understands why others will vote for Cobb or Nader. They want to vote for exactly who they want. “But we’re dealing with a power institution. The administration is so bad we just have to do something about it,” he said.

Rita Moran of Winthrop is another who left the Green Party “after hard soul searching.” She was asked by Maine Democrats to gather together a group of people who voted for Nader in 2000, but who won’t this time. She asked between 50 to 70 people who she believed voted for Nader.

“Not one was willing to publicly admit they voted for Nader,” Moran said. Of those, “All are going to vote for Kerry. If they could, they’d vote twice.”