The Baltimore Examiner reported on the Unity Convention.  Some highlights:

“You’re going to see the Kevin Zeese campaign take off in the next three weeks,” Nader predicted at the University of Baltimore. If Zeese can get some ads on TV and “the press takes more notice … you may seem rapid momentum.”

“The stars are aligned,” Zeese said. For the first time in a Maryland Senate election, there may be three-way debates with the Republican and Democratic nominees. “I believe you’re going to see that,” he said, and they may start as early as next week.

Len Lazarick, The Examiner
Sep 28, 2006 5:00 AM

BALTIMORE - An unusual coalition of Greens, Libertarians, Populists and other “progressives” at a unity convention Tuesday night heard consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader give his enthusiastic backing to Senate nominee Kevin Zeese, the nominee of all three minor parties.

“You’re going to see the Kevin Zeese campaign take off in the next three weeks,” Nader predicted at the University of Baltimore. If Zeese can get some ads on TV and “the press takes more notice … you may seem rapid momentum.”

“The stars are aligned,” Zeese said. For the first time in a Maryland Senate election, there may be three-way debates with the Republican and Democratic nominees. “I believe you’re going to see that,” he said, and they may start as early as next week.

The “duopoly” — the two parties’ monopoly of the political process — was the target of several speakers, including the Populist Party’s nominee for governor, Chris Driscoll, who will also be on the November ballot. “We want to terminate the two-party duopoly,” Driscoll said.

Nader, known for his biting criticism of corporate chicanery, said, “I’m tired of diagnosing,” and laid into the about 100 attendees, complaining of their failure to get more people involved. “You’ve got to be upset that you didn’t bring five people here tonight.”

He noted that the 19th century progressives, abolitionists and suffragettes had little of the communication resources available today. “We have it all. They had nothing. What’s our excuse? We should be ashamed of ourselves,” Nader said.

Zeese, who once served as Nader’s campaign spokesman, has called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; a “single-payer” system for universal health care coverage; support for alternative energy uses, and tax-code reform.