THIRD PARTIES STARTING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Byline: Alexa Haussler Staff Writer

With Election Day drawing near, voters complaining about their choices are looking beyond the two major parties - to Ralph Nader and other third-party hopefuls.

Nader's Green Party and other small parties have been gaining members in California while the Democrats and Republicans have seen their share of the electorate shrink. This year, even Democrats and Republicans are mulling third-party candidates as alternatives to the two major parties.

``I don't want to have to choose between worse and even worse,'' said Ron Milam, 25, a Koreatown Democrat who intends to vote for Nader.

Milam said friends are trying to persuade her to vote for Democrat Al Gore, warning that a vote for Nader could help Republican George W. Bush. But she isn't budging.

``I want to vote my conscience,'' said Milam, executive director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. ``And it's America, and I want to vote for who I think should be in there.''

Besides the Democrats, Republicans and Greens, the state's qualified political organizations are the Libertarian Party with presidential candidate Harry Browne; Reform with Patrick J. Buchanan; American Independent with Howard Phillips; and Natural Law with John Hagelin.

Nader, in perhaps holding the balance of power in Gore's struggle for California's prize of 54 electoral votes, has overshadowed the other third-party candidates, much as Reform Party candidate Ross Perot did in 1992 against Bill Clinton.

And, the possibility of Nader costing Gore the election has some voters reconsidering.

Adam Gorelick, 34, of Tarzana said he feels disaffected with the two major parties - ``It's almost like there is only one party,'' he said - but still doesn't want to take a chance on Nader.

``Even though I'm less than fond of Al Gore, if I vote for someone else like Ralph Nader, who I think is great, I think he'd just be a spoiler,'' said the Woodland Hills bookstore manager. ``It's just a pragmatic decision to vote for Gore.''

Indeed, with just eight days until the election, Green Party supporters are divided into two groups - those who plan to vote for Nader and those who don't.

Some Nader supporters are avoiding states where the presidential race is close, such as Michigan and Washington, while a major independent financial backer of Nader yanked ads out of California newspapers after polls showed the gap closing between Bush and Gore.

American politics professor Gary Segura of Claremont Graduate University said one side of the Nader camp will vote for him and ``want to drag the whole terms of the debate back to the left.''

Segura added: ``The other kind of Nader voter is the opportunist who wants to do the same thing but won't do so if it affects the outcome of the election.''

Recent polling showed Nader's support at about 5 percent of California voters. Segura said he suspects Nader's share will shrink on Election Day as voters change their minds before Nov. 7.

Still, the third-party movement in California and nationwide hopes to cash in on voter dissatisfaction with Democrats and Republicans with targeted messages intended to lure more voters to its cause.

They publicly admit they don't expect to land the presidency, but their growing numbers - and in Nader in particular - have forced some in the major parties to fight back.

``Californians understand that at this point a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush, and they don't want to see George Bush as the president of the United States,'' said Robin Rorapaugh, director of the Democratic National Committee's coordinated 2000 campaign.

Even though the number of Green, Libertarian and Reform party voters have leaped by the thousands over the past five years, those parties are still small.

Third parties have about 5.3 percent of the state's voters, up from 3 percent in 1992.

California's Democrats still are biggest with 45 percent of the total, down from 47 percent in 1992. Republicans have 35 percent, down from 40 percent eight years ago.

During the same eight-year period, registered voters who decline to state a party zoomed from under 10 percent to more than 14 percent.

Some Republicans readily agree that liberal Green Party voters who cast ballots for Nader might help Bush in California - a state Gore must carry to win the White House. A GOP group has started buying air time for TV ads that will be broadcast in the states of Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, featuring Nader attacking Gore.

``More votes that are siphoned off for Ralph Nader, of course, will benefit us,'' said Stuart DeVeaux, spokesman for the California Republican Party.

DeVeaux said the state GOP has no third-party worries. He said the party does not view supporters of Libertarian candidate Browne as ones who otherwise would line up behind Bush.

``The biggest impact we'll see in this state is Ralph Nader, and that hurts Gore,'' DeVeaux said.

One veteran political expert predicts third parties will receive fewer votes this year than in the past two presidential elections, when Ross Perot ran for president in 1992 and 1996, because the Gore-Bush race is so close and the makeup of the Supreme Court is at stake.

``This election seems to be so close, I think anybody in a rational mind would have to say, gee, I can make a difference between Gore and Bush,'' said retired University of Southern California political science professor Herbert Alexander.

Green Party leaders dispute the view that a vote for Nader will harm Gore's chances in the Golden State, where he still leads in polls and where Democrats outnumber members of any other party.

``Gore's going to take California, so people should vote their hopes, not buy into the fear-mongering that's being generated by the Democrats and others, and help advance the creation of a new permanent third party in the U.S.,'' said Ross Mirkarimi, state director of Nader 2000.

Juan Ros, executive director of the Libertarian Party of California, which is headquartered in Panorama City, also decried the major parties' claim that a third-party vote - such as one for Libertarian Browne - is a waste.

``It is a long shot that Harry will win the presidency,'' Ros said. ``But even if he doesn't win, he'll have made an important impact in the campaign. He'll have raised issues that I don't think anybody else has raised.''

Ros said third parties have more support than suggested by voter registration and vote totals on election day.

``People who agree with us, but don't believe that we are large enough yet to win, would probably rather wait for us to be large enough to win,'' Ros said. ``It's sort of the cloud that hovers over every third party.''

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(color) Ralph Nader