Some enviros and others who voted for Ralph Nader are now regretting their choice, fearing that it gave George W. Bush an advantage over Al Gore. In the chat room on Nader’s official website, John Ruth, who said he voted for Nader, wrote this to the Green Party candidate yesterday: “Mr. Gore (despite what you have said) is NOT an environmental clone of G. W. Bush. Because of your actions and statements prior to Nov. 7th, we are on the brink of a Bush presidency. No money, no support, no respect for you, Ralph, ever again!” Julie Quastler voted for Nader in Portland, Ore., and said she didn’t regret it, but she did lament, “Bush is probably going to be our president, and Nader didn’t get his 5 percent. It seems like a lose-lose end result in some ways.” Other Nader backers are proud of the Green Party’s showing and say that the poll results sent a wake-up call to the two major parties. Green Party supporters in Sebastopol, a small town in northern California, are celebrating a real victory: Two Green candidates were elected to the city council on Tuesday, joining one Green incumbent to make Sebastopol the second town in the U.S. ever to have elected a Green majority to the city council.
