Among the most recent and blatant example of organized Republican subsidy of the Greens is that of the Pennsylvania State Green Party, where in the recent US Senate race it was discovered that, aside from the Green Party candidate himself, every single donor to his campaign was NOT a Green but a conservative and/or a Republican.
Sometimes the Republicans aren't satisfied with buying a Green candidate in a particular state. Sometimes they try to take over that state's party. In 2000, the Washington State Green Party found itself being invaded and hijacked by Republicans whose sole agenda was ensuring the defeat of Democrats.
We then have the example of Republican money (at least href="00,000 and probably at least twice that) going to fund pro-Nader TV ads in Washington, Oregon and Wisconsin in 2000.
Another famous example of millenial Republican involvement in Green Party politics is that of the New Mexico State Green Party, which was offered "at least $100,000" (what state Republican Party chair John Dendahl says he offered them) and $250,000 (what the Greens say Dendahl offered them). In this case, the Greens actually turned down the money -- but only after waiting a month to do so. As the article in the NYT notes: "They were thinking about it," Mr. Dendahl said with a chuckle. "They were giving it serious consideration."
Nader and the Greens parted ways before the 2004 election, but that didn't stop the Republicans from helping Nader get onto the ballot whereever and however helping Nader get onto the ballot whereever they could.they could. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (yup, the folks that nailed Mark Foley among others) accused him of breaking federal election law by accepting GOP assistance.
Ironically enough, far-right activist Bruce Bartlett made the case for Nader as a fellow conservative back in September of 2000:
...There is an old saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. With this in mind, I began to wonder if there wasn't something about Nader that I, a political conservative, could support.... It turns out that Nader has
conservative roots and a not implausible argument that he is a conservative.
...the earliest piece I was able to find by Ralph Nader was published in the ultra-conservative American Mercury magazine in March 1960. [PW notes: The American Mercury was a respected magazine in the 1920s and 1930s, but fell on hard times and was sold to some ultra-conservatives in the 1940s, who turned the magazine
sharply to the right. Until the founding of National Review, it was the most prominent conservative publication in America.] ...
..The second article I discovered by Nader appeared in the October 1962 issue of The Freeman, published by the Foundation for Economic Education, a venerable free market group. This article is called, "How the Winstedites Kept Their Integrity." It tells about a battle fought by the citizens of Winsted, Connecticut, Nader's home town, against a federal public housing project proposed for their town...
Surprisingly, Nader makes a convincing free market argument against public housing... Wrote Nader, "A vicious circle begins to operate; as private property is undermined by public competition, private investment is
discouraged by the threat of more public housing. As local property taxes increase, the prospects diminish for new or expanding industry."
Nader went on to conclude that Big Government was to blame, in words that could easily have been spoken by Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. "Giant government has outgrown the capacity of the institutions designed to restrain its encroachments and abuses....Any government intrusion into the economy deters the alleged beneficiaries from voicing their views or participating in civic life," Nader wrote.
...there is a conservative strain in Nader's thinking that survives to the present day. For example, in his acceptance to the Association of State Green Parties in June, Nader appealed to conservatives for support.
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