Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo, dismissing criticism they are part of a "Trojan Horse'' campaign to hurt Democrat John Kerry and help President Bush, touted endorsements Tuesday of Green Party officials and announced a paid signature drive to get on the ballot in Democratic-leaning California.

"The majority of the Democratic Party members ... are closer to the politics of the Nader-Camejo ticket than to Kerry,'' Camejo said at a San Francisco press conference.

Camejo, the former Green Party candidate for governor in California, appeared alongside San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez, a Green Party member, who also denounced a "campaign'' by the Democrats to silence the independent ticket and keep it off the ballot in November.

Gonzalez, who late last year endorsed Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio for president, says -- though he believes Kucinich is still the best Democratic candidate -- he now backs Nader.

The Nader campaign needs to collect 153,000 valid signatures by Aug. 6 to qualify for the ballot in California.

Opponents of Nader's bid for office and others say there is increasing evidence the consumer advocate is receiving financial aid and campaign support from ultra-conservative Republicans who back the Republican president.

The Institute for Public Accuracy, a San Francisco-based policy research group, said Tuesday that Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, had contributed to Nader's effort in Oregon and was "widening its efforts to help presidential candidate Ralph Nader get on the ballot in pivotal states."

"It's an ego-fueled Trojan Horse for the right wing,'' said former Democratic Congressman and Texas Supreme Court Justice Bob Gammage, now a spokesman for StopNader.org, a group aimed at countering the consumer advocate's efforts.

"The Republicans perceive (the Nader campaign) the same way we do: A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush,'' he said. "They're hoping ... they can confuse enough people to take the election away from Kerry."

Democrats fear Nader's candidacy could produce a repeat of the 2000 presidential election, in which analysts believe Nader drew enough votes that otherwise would have gone to Democratic Vice President Al Gore to cost Gore the victory. Nader was a Green Party candidate at that time. This year, he is running as an independent with a more difficult challenge: to qualify for the ballot across the country.

But Camejo Tuesday signaled the campaign's intentions to aggressively fight hard for progressive votes. The campaign has hired a firm to collect signatures in California, where recent polls show Kerry holds a 7 percentage point lead over Bush in a three-way contest including Nader.

Clearly targeting the anti-war vote, the Nader-Camejo ticket has also chosen San Francisco for their first joint campaign appearance at 7 p.m. Friday at Mission High School.

The ticket has been dogged recently by questions about donations -- and campaign help -- from deep-pocketed GOP sources. A Chronicle story last week reported that one out of 10 of Nader's major contributors -- those giving more than $1,000 -- had also recently donated to the Bush-Cheney campaign and other GOP organizations.

And Nevada Republican political consultant Steve Wark told The Chronicle on Monday that he had worked on the effort to qualify Nader for the Nevada ballot as a way of helping Bush win the state.

After the Nevada petition drive gathered 11,000 signatures by the deadline, Wark said the GOP in other swing states was "taking an active role'' to help Nader and improve Bush's re-election chances.

Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for Nader's campaign, called the story bizarre' and insisted his campaign was unaware of Wark's efforts.

Camejo, questioned again Tuesday about such donations, said, "I want to encourage Republicans to give us money.''

However, he said, he opposes organized efforts by the GOP to swing the election to Bush. "We would always say no" to donations from such groups.

In a strange footnote to related charges of possible GOP influence, Nader this week said California Republicans had made a $10 million offer of support aimed at helping fund Camejo's 2002 gubernatorial run as a Green Party candidate against then-vulnerable Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

"When he was running for governor of California, Republican sources offered him $10 million -- and he turned it down flat,'' Nader said in a broadcast interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Asked about Nader's statement, Camejo told The Chronicle that political operatives acting on behalf of the GOP had offered him $10 million in campaign aid. Camejo declined to say who had made the offer -- only that he had categorically rejected it.

In the 2002 governor's race, Davis defeated Republican businessman Bill Simon by 5 percentage points. Camejo garnered 5.3 percent of the total vote.

Sacramento-based GOP strategist Jeff Flint, a former consultant to Simon, dismissed the charge as preposterous.'

"If the Simon campaign, or anybody trying to help the Simon campaign, had had $10 million to spare,'' Flint said, "we would have used it.''

© Copyright 2004 San Francisco Chronicle

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