Ralph Nader, the former Green Party candidate and scourge of many Democrats who blame him for Al Gore's defeat in 2000, earned a place on the California ballot Saturday as the newly minted candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party.

Nader won the party's presidential nomination over the spirited challenge of a socialist candidate, Gloria La Riva, in an eclectic gathering of the political left in a Sacramento hotel.

The crowd at the Peace and Freedom convention was minuscule when compared to the crowds who will greet John McCain at the Republican convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., and turn out to see Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination at the Invesco Field football stadium in Denver.

But in a packed, sweaty room at the Hawthorn Suites, Nader emerged as the champion for "progressive" activists who rallied to send a message to the two "corporate" parties, lambasting Democrats and Republicans alike for condoning sustained war, abusing workers and neglecting families.

The Peace and Freedom Party is on the ballot only in California. But Nader said getting the party's nomination – and a place as a candidate in the nation's most populous state – provided a critical jump-start to his bid to qualify for the ballot in as many as 45 states as an independent or Peace and Freedom candidate.

Nader, who ran for president as an independent in 2004, won the Peace and Freedom nomination over current Green Party candidate and former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney, La Riva and fellow socialist Brian Moore.

He prevailed after firing up the crowd with an indictment of the Democratic and Republican parties for supporting "a state of perpetual war." He vowed to fight for a workers' bill of rights and stand up against "systems of cruel and brutal globalization." He also pledged to end capital punishment, joking, "with the exception of the corporate death penalty" for companies taking advantage of citizens.

Nader faced a tough fight for the nomination from La Riva, a labor activist and current presidential candidate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, who finished second in the balloting. Decrying the economic woes of Americans, she declared that "capitalism is facing its greatest crisis since the 1930s" and warned of "the dangers of new imperialist wars."

A renowned consumer advocate and critic of big business, Nader won the nomination on the first ballot after criticizing socialism as anti-human rights and a sin akin to the corporatism that he deplores.

That drew hoots from some in the ballroom where tables were stacked with posters and stickers echoing frustrated cries of the political left: "Impeach the bloody, lying thieves," "Capitalism is not a victimless crime" and "I'm already against the next war."

"I think progressive voters are interested in solutions that are not being provided by the corporate political parties," said McKinney, who has already qualified for the California ballot as the Green Party nominee. The former Democrat from Georgia competed for the Peace and Freedom nomination by blasting Republicans for disenfranchising minority voters, accusing Democrats of passive complicity and criticizing the media for turning a deaf ear.

Nader promised to send a message "all over the United States." "Do you know what my definition of the American dream is?" he said. "Justice for everybody."

Call Peter Hecht, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5539.