'Vote your ideals ...'

At one point Nader said, "Once you don't vote your ideals ... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy."

Over the years, Nader said, the Democratic Party has lost the idealism that once connected it to working class Americans, and he said that accounts for the tight presidential race.

The Democratic Party, he said, is financed by the "same business interests that are bankrolling the Republicans."

Nader influences Gore strategy

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll shows Nader supported by 2 percent of likely voters. Gore is supported by 44 percent of likely voters and Bush by 47 percent. Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan has 1 percent.

Others polls are giving Nader as much as 5 percent of the vote.

The latest ABC News tracking poll shows Nader with 3 percent support and Bush and Gore tied at 47 percent each.

The latest Washington Post daily tracking poll has Nader with 4 percent support, Bush at 47 percent and Gore at 46 percent.

In the latest Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby tracking poll, Nader has 5 percent support, Bush 45 percent and Gore 42 percent.

Nader's challenge has forced Gore and Democratic surrogates -- including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Gore's primary rival, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley -- to spend more time in states such as Oregon and Washington.

A 'cleanup drive in Washington'

Calling the Green Party the third biggest party in the United States, Nader said he expected to get millions of votes from a cross section of Americans. They're voting for the Green Party, he said, because they want a "cleanup drive in Washington, to break the grip of the permanent corporate government that makes good people in the Congress not fulfill their own potential."

He predicted his support on Election Day will tap the 51 per cent of eligible voters who chose not to cast their ballots in the 1996 presidential election, and from young people who were not eligible to vote four years ago.

"Let's not just look at it as taking votes away from Gore," Nader said. "Our support comes from a lot of people."

The Democratic Party, Nader said, should pay attention to this constituency -- part of what he called a progressive political movement.

"If the Democratic Party wants to respond, fine," he said. "If it doesn't, then it will shrink down. We are not going down on our knees anymore."

Nader shrugged off reports that some Republicans were urging Democratic voters to vote for him -- to help ensure a Bush victory.

"We get one Republican vote for every two Democratic votes, some polls have told us," Nader said.

And he said his candidacy could help Democratic congressional hopefuls. "If they think I'm taking a lot of votes from Gore compared to Bush, then they also have to concede the consequence, which is that these voters, looking and seeing no Green candidates [for congressional seats], will vote for the Democrat, and that's a nice consolation prize," he said.

Nader, a lawyer and consumer advocate, said the Green Party offers positions distinct from both Republicans and Democrats.

They include, he said, stopping the "diversion of tax dollars into corporate welfare giveaways" and "taking down a bloated military budget, driven by the weapons corporations, rather than by defense considerations."

He also said he favors withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying workplace and wage standards should be "pulled up, not down."

Unlike the Democrats and Republicans, Nader said, the Green Party was not taking any "crooked" corporate money or money from political action committees.

All Green Party funding, he said, comes from individual contributors.

"We practice what we preach," he said.