Campaign Notebook
Nader on Florida's ballot; denied spot in New MexicoKerry having a ball

MARK WILSON / GETTY IMAGES Having a ball, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry plays soccer with young members of the Denver Power Soccer Academy team on the tarmac in Denver on Thursday. |

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The Florida Supreme Court ruled 6-1 yesterday that he can run as the Reform Party presidential candidate in the November election.

The decision met today's deadline for mailing 25,000 ballots to overseas voters, most of them military personnel, and ended a dizzying two weeks during which Nader was on and off the ballot.

"This is a case that should have been thrown out of the courts sooner," said Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for the Nader campaign.

Also yesterday, a judge ruled Nader would stay on the presidential ballot in Colorado. In New Mexico, a judge barred Nader from that state's ballot.

As the Green Party candidate in 2000, Nader attracted 97,000 Florida votes — and most Democrats and many Republicans agree that those votes cost Democrat Al Gore the presidency. President Bush won the state by 537 votes.

The Reform Party of Florida this year submitted Nader to the state as its candidate. The Florida Democratic Party and several individual voters challenged his certification.

The key legal challenge against Nader was the contention that the Reform Party no longer was a bona fide national party and didn't nominate Nader in a national convention — as required by Florida law — but did it in a conference call three months earlier.

Bush urges women to see beyond violence

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Bush sought backing from female voters yesterday, asking them to look beyond rising violence in Iraq to a day when a democratically elected leader will lead the nation.

"Someday an American president, whoever he or she may be, will be sitting down with a duly elected leader of Iraq and talking about how to keep the peace in a greater Middle East — and our children and our grandchildren will be better off for it," Bush said.
 
He spoke at a "Focus on Women" event in a state where he holds a narrow lead.

Bush courted women voters yesterday by talking about his "flextime, comptime" proposal.

His plan would let workers choose time off instead of overtime pay as compensation for extra work. Labor leaders say that, under flextime rules, workers no longer would be paid overtime if they worked 50 hours in one week and 30 the next.

He also renewed his call for medical-liability changes.

Kerry alleges plan to call up more troops

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry yesterday accused the Bush administration of hiding a plan to mobilize more National Guard and Reserve troops after the election while glossing over a worsening conflict in Iraq.

"He won't tell us what congressional leaders are now saying, that this administration is planning yet another substantial call-up of reservists and Guard units immediately after the election," Kerry said. "Hide it from people through the election, then make the move."

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee and a former Marine who served in Vietnam, said he had learned through conversations with Pentagon officials that beginning in November, "the Bush administration plans to call up large numbers of the military Guard and Reserves, to include plans that they previously had put off to call up the Individual Ready Reserve."

The Bush campaign denied the assertion about secret plans.

"John Kerry's conspiracy theory of a secret troop deployment is completely irresponsible," spokesman Steve Schmidt said. "John Kerry didn't launch this attack when he spoke to the National Guard because he knows they know it is false and ridiculous."

Investigation: Medals properly approved

WASHINGTON — The Navy's chief investigator concluded yesterday that procedures were followed properly in the approval of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals, according to an internal Navy memo.

Vice Adm. R.A. Route, the Navy inspector general, conducted the review at the request of Judicial Watch, a public-interest group. The group also has asked for the release of additional records documenting Kerry's military service.

Some veterans have challenged Kerry's version of circumstances surrounding the incident that led to his Silver Star award for battlefield heroism, as well as his three Purple Heart medals.

Also

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage alleged yesterday that insurgents have stepped up assaults in Iraq because they want to "influence the election against President Bush," a statement that drew a sharp condemnation from the Kerry campaign.

Campaign mail with a return address of the Republican National Committee warns West Virginia voters that the Bible will be prohibited and men will marry men if liberals win in November. "It wouldn't surprise me if we were mailing voters on the issue of same-sex marriage," RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie said.