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Committee to Elect
Vivian Houghton Attorney General
The News Journal, Oct. 6, 2002
Nader endorses
Houghton for attorney general
2000 presidential candidate speaks out
on corporations, pollution
By ADAM TAYLOR
Staff reporter
10/06/2002
Attorney General candidate Vivian Houghton
was endorsed by 2000 presidential candidate and consumer-rights advocate
Ralph Nader in Newark on Saturday.
About 250 people at the Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship of Newark on Willa Road heard Nader's hour-long
speech.
Nader and Houghton are both members of the
Green Party. He said he hopes Houghton would become the first Green state
attorney general in United States history.
Nader said that Delaware's lengthy list of
polluters and large out-of-state companies that incorporate here make
Houghton's candidacy particularly important.
"Delaware is known as the 'corporate
Reno' of America," he said. "This is going to be an interesting
challenge for Attorney General Houghton."
Houghton is running against Republican
incumbent M. Jane Brady and Democratic challenger Carl Schnee, former U.S.
Attorney for Delaware, in the Nov. 5 election.
Houghton introduced Nader at a fund-raiser
in Wilmington two years ago during his failed presidential bid. She said
she was proud to receive his support Saturday.
"Tonight's endorsement meant a great
deal to me and I'm proud to have received it," she said.
"Because, God knows, we're fighting injustice in Delaware."
Nader said Delaware's next top prosecutor
would be known as "King Kong" among the nation's 50 attorney
generals because the state has so many national and global corporations
here in a time of "an American corporate crime wave."
"The biggest corporations in the world
charter in one of the smallest states," he said.
Nader challenged each member of the
audience to get 100 of their friends to vote for Houghton next month.
He said Houghton would work to combat
corporate criminals and polluters and represent the everyday person, which
he said would strike a major blow to the power structure in Delaware.
"General Motors could buy Delaware in
a weekend if DuPont was willing to sell it," he said.
Nader's stop to stump for Houghton was part
of an East Coast swing for Green Party candidates. He also was in Trenton,
N.J., and Philadelphia on Saturday.
Nader is the second 2000 presidential
candidate to make an endorsement in the state's attorney general race.
Former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Schnee in Wilmington last month.
Houghton, 59, a former Democratic Party
activist, announced her Green Party campaign for attorney general in a
three-county tour in April.
She has won the endorsement of Delaware's
United Auto Workers. The union represents roughly 7,000 autoworkers,
according to union officials.
The former public defender and legal-aid
attorney said she intends to be more than a spoiler in the election, as
Nader was for Gore in the 2000 presidential race.
"We intend to win," she said.
Reach Adam Taylor at 324-2787 or ataylor@delawareonline.com.
[web note: The News Journal article included a picture of
Ralph Nader and Vivian Houghton.]
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