Presidential candidate Ralph Nader visited UNM on Tuesday to drum up student interest in his campaign before making his way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
About 90 students and faculty members crowded in SUB Ballroom C to ask Nader questions and to support his grassroots campaign for the presidential seat.
Nader, 74, is on his fifth campaign for president. He advocates consumer rights and was criticized in 2000 after some said he stole votes from Al Gore, tipping the election toward President Bush.
Nader said his desire to revive the U.S. economy and preserve the environment while searching for new forms of energy is what makes him the best candidate for president.
"For 40 years I have not flip-flopped," he said. "I have taken on all these giant corporations, and that's why there are safer cars in this country, and that is why we have the Drinking Water Safety Act of 1974."
Nader said he has advocated other laws to protect the environment, such as the clean air and water laws that were passed in the early 1970s.
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"We (had) many other changes in Washington before other corporations got such a tight grip on our Congress and executive branch," he said.
Nader ran as the presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000. For his 2004 campaign, he ran as an independent candidate and is doing the same this year. So far, Nader is on the ballot in 32 states and is a write-in candidate for Oklahoma, North Carolina and Indiana.
Donald Gluck, president of the College Republicans, said adding Nader to the political equation in New Mexico could potentially cause problems for the Democratic Party.
"He does kind of foul up the works for the Democrats, but the Republicans don't set him loose to cause this trouble," Gluck said. "He seems to do it on his own. I guess he's sort of an example of going to an extreme."
Lee Drake, president of the College Democrats, said that by running for president as an independent candidate, Nader is demonstrating exactly the type of behavior that makes a free country great.
Drake said the addition of Nader to the ballot will not sway the votes of those who have already decided to vote for Sen. Barack Obama.
"As far as this election goes, I am confident that Barack Obama has made his case thoroughly enough that any sort of negative impact by Ralph Nader will be minimal," Drake said.
The way Nader campaigns is also refreshing to see in this year's political scene, Drake said.
"Nader has run in a lot of elections, and I think he runs very square on specific issues," he said. "And that's a far cry from the sort of policy argument that we see with John McCain, Barack Obama and other third-party candidates in the past, such as Ross Perot."
Nader said student voters should take an interest in this year's election because they have the biggest stake in this country.
"If you're coming out of university now and you're 21 or 22, you're concerned about affordable housing, affordable health insurance and whether your job is going to be outsourced to India or China - you're concerned about a lot of things that students years ago never had to worry about," he said.
Nader said he would like to lighten the burden of crushing student loans and gouging interest rates.
He said students should open their minds to the possibility of smaller political parties on the ballot in the future. Nader said he was upset that young voters are willing to accept the limited options they are given and never expect anything different.
"If the students who usually start out with high expectations and idealisms are driving themselves down to low expectation levels of the least worst of the two corrupt parties, then their future is going to be very grim indeed," he said.
