Earlier today, Ralph Nader announced that he has selected Peter Camejo as his running mate, and Camejo accepted. A Nader-Camejo ticket has probably a 50-50 chance to be endorsed by the Green Party. If the Green party does endorse Nader, it would provide him ballot access in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

The Green Party Convention will be held in Milwaukee starting on Wednesday and will continue until June 28th. According to Green Party rules, a simple majority of delegates is required in order to become the Presidential nominee. Going into the convention, here are the current delegate totals:

David Cobb	   240.5
Uncommitted	   173.5
Peter Camejo	   114.5
None of the Above     88.5
Ralph Nader	    64.5
Others		    64.5

With Camejo on Nader's ticket

David Cobb	   240.5
Nader + Camejo	   179.0
Uncommitted	   173.5
None of the Above     88.5
Others		    64.5

Considering the timing of his selection (two days before the convention) and Caemjo's standing in the delegate count, I fail to see how Nader choosing Camejo as his running mate can be viewed as anything but an attempt to defeat David Cobb at the Green Party convention.

Nader must be desperate for ballot access if he is making a move like this. If Cobb wins, I would not be surprised if Nader drops out. On the other hand, if Nader-Camejo is "endorsed," the Greens might cease to be even a marginal factor in US politics. As Norman Soloman puts it:

The situation faced by delegates to the Green Party national convention is not as it has appeared. Nader has been saying that while he will not seek or accept their nomination, he would welcome their endorsement of his "independent" presidential candidacy. Yet Green Party national delegates will be asked to swallow a pill that's even more bitter than they first imagined. In fact, the Green Party isn't being asked to endorse an "independent" candidate for president this year -- the Green Party is being asked to endorse a candidate who is seeking to be the nominee of another party.

Barring the unlikely event that the Green Party decides to opt out of the 2004 presidential race entirely, the national convention will almost certainly go one of two ways: Either it will adopt the Nader "endorsement" scenario, an option that apparently would create upheaval if not chaos for the Green Party at state levels. Or the convention will nominate David Cobb, a tireless Green Party activist with an impressive record of talking the talk and walking the walk of grassroots activism.

There will be high excitement in Milwaukee this week. As a political junkie, I can only wish that Democratic and Republican conventions were as full of suspense as those held by Libertarians and Greens.