Independent candidate Ralph Nader is making another run for president this November, and his campaign is looking to ASU students for help.
In 2000, Nader sought the presidency as the Green Party nominee, and in 2004, he ran as an independent, losing both times to President George W. Bush.
He announced his intentions to run again as an independent candidate on MSNBC's "Meet the Press" in February.
About 20 people showed up at Hayden Library Saturday for the campaign-sponsored recruitment of petition circulators, said Toby Heaps, the national field director for the Nader campaign.
The campaign hopes to involve ASU students in their signature drive and will pay accepted petitioners $1 for each signature they collect.
"Seventy percent of the [Nader] campaign is focused on getting on the ballot in November," Heaps said. "Arizona is a really tricky state to get on the ballot for the presidential election."
Third-party candidates need to file roughly 22,000 valid signatures in Arizona to make the ballot, as opposed to states like Colorado, where they simply pay a $500 fee.
"Some states are even harder, but Arizona is one of the toughest states for us," Heaps said.
Convincing registered voters to sign the petitions is easier than one would think, he said, because even people who don't support Nader may still sign because they don't object to his presence on the ballot.
"Most people sort of agree that everybody deserves a shot," Heaps said.
The Nader campaign also held a meeting Saturday at the UA, but with less success, Heaps said.
"I found ASU to be a little more supportive," he said, "I found the people at ASU to be a little more open-minded than at UA."
Nicole Brooks, the Arizona state coordinator for the Nader campaign and a student at Glendale Community College, said recruiting petitioners at college campuses like ASU is fun because students often like to debate about politics.
"You tend to get more signatures when people care about the issue," she said.
One of the campaign's goals is to engage a younger generation of Nader supporters to collect signatures, Brooks said, and Heaps, the national field director, agreed.
"We want to help create a new generation of leaders," Heaps said. "When you're out there having hundreds and hundreds of conversations, it builds a certain resolve."
Still, despite the fact that the campaign pays for signatures, Heaps said Nader's candidacy inspires the people who gather signatures for the campaign.
"No one gets rich," he said. "You have to be motivated by the cause, I think, to be out there."
Reach the reporter at: leigh.munsil@asu.edu.
