{"id":39,"date":"2008-02-29T19:07:37","date_gmt":"2008-03-01T00:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/ralph-nader-running-mate-gonzalez-spotlight-election-reform\/"},"modified":"2022-05-08T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T04:15:00","slug":"ralph-nader-running-mate-gonzalez-spotlight-election-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/ralph-nader-running-mate-gonzalez-spotlight-election-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Ralph Nader Running Mate, Matt Gonzalez, to Shine a Spotlight on Election Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"display:block;float:left;padding:5px;\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-2162106478346973\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-08-03: STBlogPostPage300X250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"6465476065\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"EDF1F0\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"EDF1F0\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"008000\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"008000\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/div>In my <a title=\"The Key Issue Suspiciously Missing from Ralph Nader's \" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/key-issue-missing-from-ralph-nader-table\/\">previous post<\/a>, I voiced my longstanding frustration with <a title=\"Ralph Nader\" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/politics\/polheroes\/nader.shtml\">Ralph Nader<\/a> for continuing to run for president within a <a title=\"Plurality Voting System\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Plurality_voting_system\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">plurality election system<\/a> while simultaneously failing to focus his campaign on raising awareness of and advocating <a title=\"Election Reform\" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/politics\/polissues\/electionreform.shtml\">reforms<\/a> of that system that would eliminate the very possibility of the &#8220;spoiler&#8221; role of which he is so often accused.<\/p>\n<p>Great news. It appears that Nader&#8217;s recently-announced 2008 running mate, Matt Gonzalez, has decided to make these issues a priority. In fact, Gonzalez says it is a major reason he decided to accept the position.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Why Did Gonzalez Join Nader's Ticket?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=87802427\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here<\/a>, Gonzalez says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I thought what I would bring to it &#8230; is an emphasis on election reform, and I could cite specific things that I had accomplished in that regard.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a title=\"Nader announces Matt Gonzalez as his running mate\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/news\/ci_8403735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here<\/a>, Gonzalez says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Everyone wants to blame him for running. But he has to run, because the other parties don&#8217;t want to fix the problems with election reform. They&#8217;ve put us in an awkward position &#8211; either we never run for office, and the problems never get fixed; or run, try to win votes on substance and get criticized for it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a title=\"Nader taps former Supervisor Gonzalez for running mate\" href=\"http:\/\/www.examiner.com\/a-1249823~Nader_taps_former_Supervisor_Gonzalez_for_running_mate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here<\/a>, the article says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Gonzalez, the Texas native who took Mayor Gavin Newsom the distance in a 2003 mayoral race before losing 53 to 43 percent in a runoff election, said he accepted Nader&#8217;s invitation to bring expertise to <strong>&#8216;the most important issue with a Ralph Nader candidacy, which is election reform,&#8217;<\/strong> he told The Examiner on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The system as it&#8217;s set up right now allows the president to win the contest without getting over 50 percent of the vote,&#8217; Gonzalez said.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And, <a title=\"Matt Gonzalez joins Ralph Nader's ticket\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sfgate.com\/cgi-bin\/article.cgi?f=\/c\/a\/2008\/02\/29\/MNFCVATTD.DTL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>, the article says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Matt Gonzalez is not going to control whether or not Ralph Nader runs. He&#8217;s going to run,&#8221; Gonzalez said. &#8220;The question of my joining the campaign is whether or not I can have a positive impact on how the issues are discussed, which issues are discussed. That&#8217;s why I picked the whole issue of election reform.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez said he would call for changes to open the process to third-party candidates. He is pushing several ideas, including a system under which voters would rank their top choices for president &#8211; which is similar to the instant runoff system he championed for local races in San Francisco.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And it appears Nader himself understands the importance of Gonzalez making this issue a priority in his campaign.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Nader Announces Pick for Vice President\" href=\"http:\/\/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com\/2008\/02\/28\/nader-announces-vp-pick\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here<\/a>, Nader describes Gonzalez thus:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;He has great character, a great personality, steadfastness in his principles and a lot of good experience,&#8221; Mr. Nader said. &#8220;He&#8217;s not that old, but criminal justice in the courts, urban policies, and election reform &#8211; those are three important areas.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Kudos to Ralph Nader for choosing a running mate who will focus on these most important issues. And kudos to Matt Gonzalez for already beginning to open up the dialogue to focus on the real <a title=\"Campaign, Election and Media Reform: Levers and Leverage Points for Improving Our Society \" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/michael-moore-social-change-in-america-part-5\/\">leverage points<\/a> for change that Ralph Nader&#8217;s presidential campaigns have always surfaced, but, until now, failed to address constructively.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s hoping 2008 brings a different tone from the Nader campaign, one that thrusts election reforms like <em><a title=\"Instant Runoff Voting\" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/politics\/polissues\/instantrunoffvoting.shtml\">Instant Runoff Voting<\/a>, <a title=\"Approval Voting\" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/politics\/polissues\/approvalvoting.shtml\">Approval Voting<\/a>, <a title=\"Range Voting\" href=\"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/politics\/polissues\/rangevoting.shtml\">Range Voting<\/a><\/em> and other options &#8211; all vast improvements over our current plurality election system &#8211; into the spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my previous post, I voiced my longstanding frustration with Ralph Nader for continuing to run for president within a plurality election system while simultaneously failing to focus his campaign on raising awareness of and advocating reforms of that system that would eliminate the very possibility of the &#8220;spoiler&#8221; role of which he is so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[505,506,69,507,78,171,508,80,509,510,511],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2008-presidential-election","tag-approval-voting","tag-election-reform","tag-election-system","tag-instant-runoff-voting","tag-leverage-points","tag-matt-gonzalez","tag-politics","tag-ralph-nader","tag-range-voting","tag-spoiler-issue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.systemsthinker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}