To some, Nader loss is costly

GO FIGURE. THE nation holds its breath over the vote in Florida, and A. Robert Kaufman, a man who knows a thing or two about the fine art of losing a political campaign, blames Al Gore as the man who cost Ralph Nader the election.

This puts Kaufman, a contender in the last Baltimore mayoral election, in something of a minority. In fact, about a 2 percent minority. But Kaufman's been here before. In last year's mayoral unpleasantness, campaigning hard all summer, concocting endless victory scenarios, he ended up with 233 votes. In this week's presidential balloting, he was one of Nader's Green Party minions. Yesterday, he asked: Who's calling whom a spoiler? Knock off Gore's 35 million votes, and his 49 percent share, and Nader's right in there.

It's all in the perspective. While the ballots are counted in Florida, Gore's backers swallow their bitterness toward Nader. Yesterday, Nader holds a news conference and says, If Gore couldn't crush that pinhead Bush, don't blame me. Meanwhile, Gore looks at Florida's numbers, and wishes to cremate Nader on the spot. Separated from George W. Bush by about 1,600 votes as the recount commenced, Gore saw that Nader took 2 percent of roughly 6 million votes cast in Florida. You do the math.

The whole country saw repeats of this in other states, where Nader's vote was greater than the difference between the victorious Bush and the defeated Gore. Lots of those Nader votes would have been Gore's. Across the country, Nader got 2.6 million votes. Exit polls in seven closely contested states - including Florida - showed that about half the Nader voters would have backed Gore in a two-way race - but few would have voted for Bush.

So, today we have the Gore camp calling Nader the ruination of their election, and the following perspective offered from Bob Kaufman of Baltimore: Tough luck. Bill Clinton wasn't too proud to accept Ross Perot's help in two elections. In the American system, this year was political turnaround.

As for Kaufman, in a series of quixotic political campaigns around here - running as a Socialist, running on principle, and running on financial empty - he has never won. And never come close. But he's always stressed the kind of thing Nader now talks about: the notion of pushing the envelope, of making people think about changing the system.