Editor, Daily Nexus,

The content of the Nexus article “Green VP Candidate Speaks in MCC” (Daily Nexus, Oct. 13) was misleading. At the end of the article, a student says, “I’m really glad one of the political parties chose to have one of their candidates here.” While I am sure that members of the Reform Party would be enthused to know that a vice presidential candidate endorsed by their party came to UCSB, I doubt that there were any Pat Buchanan fans in the crowd at Camejo’s appearance.

The truth is that Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo are not on the Green Party’s presidential ticket, nor are they even endorsed by the Green Party. Although I did not attend the event and do not know what Camejo actually said, the article made numerous references to Camejo endorsing the Green Party – calling it “the best alternative” to the Democratic or Republican tickets and encouraging a Nader/Camejo write-in for the November election. However, if you step into the polling booth come November, you’ll discover that you do have the opportunity to vote for the Green Party Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates: David Cobb and Pat LaMarche.

The Nexus should have done a better job of making this distinction clear. However, I am more surprised at the lack of support for the real Green Party candidates by the UCSB Campus Greens. If you want to support a party, shouldn’t you vote for its nominees? Perhaps the Campus Greens would benefit from visiting the Green Party website: www.gp.org.

I will also take this opportunity to say that it is rather tiresome to hear Nader and Camejo claim that the Democratic and Republican parties are the reason for the lack of a strong third party. If Nader and Camejo want to have viable third parties, they should be campaigning for a Constitutional amendment that creates a system of proportional representation, not by hyping bogus conspiracy theories. The truth is that Nader and Camejo won’t win because everyone knows that they would never be able to get a plurality of the vote. They represent a fairly small, very leftist portion of the electorate. Most progressives realize they have a better chance of representation with a candidate who can get the support of a broad spectrum of Americans. This candidate is John Kerry.