Ralph Nader, whose third-party White House bid in 2000 was blamed by some Democrats for helping elect President George W. Bush, said on Sunday he will try again this year as an independent.
Ignoring the pleas of Democrats to stay out of the race, the veteran consumer advocate said he wanted to challenge the stranglehold on the political process of the two main parties and fight their addiction to corporate interests.
"Washington is corporate-occupied territory, and the two parties are ferociously competing to see who is going to go to the White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters," Nader said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Nader's Green Party bid picked up nearly 2.9 million votes in 2000 and was blamed for siphoning support from Democrat Al Gore - particularly in Florida, where Nader won 97,488 votes and Gore's loss by a bitterly contested 537 votes cost him the presidency.
Nader started an exploratory committee late last year to raise money for a presidential run. He had ruled out another bid for the Green Party, which was split on his candidacy and will not pick its nominee until this summer.
"I've decided to run as an independent candidate for president," he said.
A public opinion poll in October found two-thirds of Americans did not want Nader to run again, and Democrats from across the ideological spectrum have asked him to stay out of the race and give them a clear shot at Bush.
An entire liberal Internet Web site, ralphdontrun.net, is devoted to urging Nader not to run again.
"Unlike 2000, there is no need for an alternative progressive voice, because we have progressive candidates in the primary that will challenge the Democratic Partys shift to the right," said civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who is making his own presidential bid as a Democrat.
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