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			{{short description\|Venezuelan American politician}}
	]
			{{Family name hatnote\|Camejo\|Guanche\|lang=Spanish}}
	'''Peter Miguel Camejo''' (born ], ]) is a financier, businessman, political activist, environmentalist, author, and one of the founders of the "socially responsible" investment movement. In ], he was selected by independent candidate ] as his ] running mate.
			{{use mdy dates\|date=May 2022}}
			{{Infobox officeholder
			\|name = Peter Camejo
			\|image = Peter Camejo.gif
			\|birth_name = Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche
			\|birth_date = {{birth date\|1939\|12\|31}}
			\|birth_place = ], ], U.S.
			\|death_date = {{death date and age\|2008\|9\|13\|1939\|12\|31}}
			\|death_place = ], ], U.S.
			\|party = ] {{small\|(before 1980)}}<br />] {{small\|(2002–2004; 2006–2008)}}<br />] {{small\|(2004–2006)}}
			\|father = Peter Camejo
			\|spouse = Morella Camejo
			\|alma_mater = {{nowrap\|]}}<br />]
			}}

			'''Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche''' (December 31, 1939 – September 13, 2008) was a ] author, activist, politician and Sailing Olympian. In the ], he was selected by independent candidate ] as his ] running mate on a ticket which had the endorsement of the ].<ref>{{cite web \|url=http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=32 \|website=www.votenader.org \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009074327/http://www.votenader.org/media_press/index.php?cid=32 \|title=Nader For President 2004\|archive-date=October 9, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news\|last=Seelye\|first=Katharine Q.\|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E0DB113CF930A25756C0A9629C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/R/Reform%20Party\|title=THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE INDEPENDENT; Reform Party Backs Nader, Offering Line On Ballots\|location=Mississippi; Kansas; Michigan; Colorado; Montana; Florida; South Carolina\|work=New York Times\|date=2004-05-13\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref>
	Camejo is a first generation ] of ] descent. In spite of spending his earliest years in Venezuela, he had been fortuitously born in ] where his mother had sought health care. His parents divorced when he was seven, and he came with his mother to reside principally in the ]. On summer holidays he would return to ] to visit relatives. The contrasts he perceived between his two "homes" during these early years greatly influenced his character: specifically, what he purports to be his passionate love of ] and ], and his equal disdain for ] and ]. He competed for Venezuela in ] in the ].

			Camejo was a three-time ] gubernatorial candidate in California, most recently in ], when he received 2.3 percent of the vote. Camejo also ran in the ] finishing ] (2.8%), and in ], finishing third with 5.3%. In the ] he ran for the ], receiving 90,310 votes.
	He attended the ] and the ] where he studied history. In ], after winning a student council election at Berkeley he was suspended for "using an unauthorized microphone" in a protest against the ].

			==Early life==
	For most of his life, Camejo has purported to participate in political movements advocating social, economic, and environmental justice. He makes the claim that he marched with ] in ], rallied with ] farm workers, and protested the ].
			Camejo was a first-generation American of ]n descent. At the time of his birth, his mother was residing in the ] borough of ]. Although Camejo spent most of his early childhood in Venezuela, he was a "natural born citizen" of the United States and therefore constitutionally eligible for the U.S. Presidency later in life.

			His parents, Elvia Guanche and ],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.wargs.com/political/camejo.html\|title=Ancestry of Peter Camejo\|publisher=Wargs.com\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref> divorced when their son was seven. Camejo then resided with his mother in the United States and returned to Venezuela during summer holidays to visit family. In later youth Camejo showed talent as a ], competing in 1960 for Venezuela at the ] with his father in the ], where they took 21st place.<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/61532 \|title=Peter Camejo \|work=Olympedia \|access-date=4 June 2020}}</ref>
	He was the ] candidate for president in ].

			Camejo entered the ], involving himself in ] and, increasingly, ] politics. Later he studied history at the ], where he won election to student council. His participation in a protest of the ] in 1967 led to his suspension from the university for "using an unauthorized microphone." Then-governor ] deemed Camejo one of California's ten most dangerous citizens due to his presence at ] protests.<ref name="NYT">"Peter Camejo, 68, Dies; '04 Nader Pick" AP, September 13, 2008, 9:46 p.m. ET, in the ''New York Times'' </ref> He also participated in one of the ].<ref name="NYT"/>
	In ] he was the Green Party's official candidate in the 2002 California gubernatorial election, polling 381,700 votes or 5.3%.

			==Politics==
	In ] he was the leading ] candidate for governor in an unprecedented ] election, in which he polled ]. Although an actor turned Republican politician, ], won the election (ousting the unpopular Democratic Party incumbent ]), Camejo's attendance in all of the scheduled debates brought national support and worldwide attention to the Green Party. Without his having the quite the level of funding of many of his opponents, Peter Camejo finished fourth in a field of 135 certified candidates: quite a feat in ], a state that was often described during the election as the fifth largest economy in the world.
			Initially, Camejo was a member of the ] (SWP), a ] party. As a branch organizer, he sought to reorient the SWP towards the student movement.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/amersocialist/cochranite_legacy.htm\|title=The Cochranite Legacy\|publisher=Marxists.org\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref>

			]
	In January, ] Peter Camejo initiated the ] that issued a statement known as the "]." The Avocado Declaration described actions by the ] and the ] as hindering social progress by working together to largely benefit a small wealthy constituency. It further advocated for a fiercely independent Green Party that would be capable of attracting nonvoters and disillusioned mainstream party supporters.
			Camejo's first political campaign on behalf of the SWP came in 1967 when as a 27-year old he ran for mayor ].<ref> ''The Militant,'' vol. 31, no. 3 (Jan. 16, 1967), pg. 1.</ref> He was the SWP's nominee for ] and won 90,986 votes, or 0.1%.

			While a member of the Socialist Workers Party, Camejo wrote ''Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877. The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction,'' published by the party's publishing house, ].<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.pathfinderpress.com/s.nl/it.A/id.602/.f?category=\|title=Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877\|publisher=Pathfinderpress.com\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref> He also met with ].<ref>{{cite web \|last1=Wenz \|first1=John \|title=UFOs, dolphins, nuclear war and communism: the stranger than sci-fi political party \|url=https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ufos-dolphins-nuclear-war-and-communism-the-stranger-than-sci-fi-political-party \|website=Syfy Wire \|date=November 2017 \|publisher=] \|access-date=4 February 2019 \|archive-date=February 7, 2019 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207020502/https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/ufos-dolphins-nuclear-war-and-communism-the-stranger-than-sci-fi-political-party \|url-status=dead }}</ref>
	"The Green Party is at a crossroads," the Declaration began. Indeed, the central debate within the ] prior to its 2004 presidential nomination was about whether to follow Camejo's advice of pursuing a confrontational campaign stategy promulgated in The Avocado Declaration or to tend the party at the state and local levels and assist a Democratic Party victory over the Republicans in the fall. While Camejo and others advocated for attracting new party members by sharply defining campaign issues, some feared a backlash against the party if it was perceived to help return ] to the ].

			The SWP's policy was to turn its members into "proletarians" by having them take jobs in factories and advocate for a worker-based class struggle. By 1980, Camejo came to disagree with this policy in favor of ], and the SWP expelled him. He led the third dissident group of the SWP and formed North Star Network in 1983.<ref>{{cite book\| title=The Twilight of World Trotskyism\| author=John Kelly\| date=October 28, 2022\| publisher=Taylor & Francis\| isbn=978-1000816457\| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48CVEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22peter+camejo%22+%22north+star+network%22&pg=PT40}}</ref><ref>{{cite book\| title=International Trotskyism, 1929-1985 {{!}} A Documented Analysis of the Movement\| author=Robert Jackson Alexander\| year=1991\| publisher=Duke University Press\| isbn=0822309750\| page=893\| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC&dq=%22peter+camejo%22+%22north+star+network%22&pg=PA893}}</ref>
	Camejo submitted himself as a candidate in the Green Party of California's ], ] presidential preference primary. Before the primary, he made it known (though not in the state's official voter guide) that he was not planning to run for president and that any delegates pledged to him would be released as uncommitted in order to allow for greater flexibility in the nominating process. The former gubernatorial candidate got 76 percent of the vote and also accumulated a few pledged delegates from other states.

			In 1992 Camejo committed $20,000 of his own money toward establishing the Progressive Alliance of Alameda County, an organizational effort that did not sustain itself.<ref>{{cite web\|title = Progressive Alliance of Alameda County - KeyWiki\|url = http://keywiki.org/Progressive_Alliance_of_Alameda_County\|website = keywiki.org\|access-date = 2016-02-12}}</ref>
	At the convention in ] on ], ], proponents of a less confrontational strategy tended to support the nomination of presidential candidate ], while Camejo's fellow-thinkers rallied behind him and called for an endorsement of the Nader/Camejo campaign. However, the presence of other issues such as Nader's non-membership in the party, non-presence at the convention, and alliance with the ] kept the nomination vote from being merely a referendum on strategy. Cobb won the nomination in the second round.

			Camejo was quoted in 2002 as claiming that he was a watermelon—].<ref>{{cite news \|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2002/10/02/MN31845.DTL&o=0 \|title=Multimedia (image) \|publisher=SF Gate \|access-date=2011-01-01 \|first=Suzanne \|last=Herel \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051115223807/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2002%2F10%2F02%2FMN31845.DTL&o=0 \|archive-date=November 15, 2005 }}</ref>
	Despite losing the endorsement of the Green Party, Nader and Camejo continued their campaign as independent candidates, having been endorsed by the Reform Party on ], ].

			However, in January 2004 Camejo initiated the ] which compares ], to avocados. ''"An avocado is Green on the outside and Green on the inside."''<ref>{{cite web\|title = The Avocado Declaration, a statement by Peter Camejo and the Avocado Education Project\|url = http://www.cagreens.org/longbeach/avocado.htm\|website = www.cagreens.org\|access-date = 2016-02-12}}</ref>
	Both Nader and Camejo said the main reason they ran in the 2004 election was because there were no other national candidates demanding an immediate withdrawal of American troops from what they believe is an immoral and unconstitutionally pursued ] (though ], Libertarian candidate ], ] candidate ], and ] candidate ] also opposed the war).

			Just over a month after the 2004 election, Camejo was elected as one of California's delegates to the National Committee of the Green Party and established the GDI, "Greens for Democracy and Independence,"<ref>{{cite web\|title = S/R 39: Call for a Green Committee for Democracy and Independence\|url = http://www.greens.org/s-r/39/39-15.html\|website = www.greens.org\|access-date = 2016-02-12}}</ref> a cadre group within the larger Green Party of California that ran candidates for local Green County Councils.<ref>{{cite web\|title=Greens for Democracy and Independence \|url=http://greens4democracy.net/ \|date=2006-12-05 \|access-date=2016-02-12 \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205064621/http://greens4democracy.net/ \|archive-date=December 5, 2006 }}</ref> At the 2005 Green Party National Convention, Camejo stated that he would not be a candidate for President in 2008.
	Peter Camejo is married and has two children. He lives in ]. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Progressive Asset Management, a financial investment firm that encourages "socially responsible projects." He is the author of "The SRI Advantage- Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially", and other books.

			Camejo wrote a number of articles concerning the divisions evident in the ] in the aftermath of the turbulent 2004 national convention, continuing the themes of the ] in opposing attempts to "cozy up" to the newly formed ].

			In August 2008 he attended the convention of the ] in order to personally endorse Nader's presidential candidacy.<ref name="NYT"/>

			==Gubernatorial campaigns==
			]
			Camejo ran for Governor of California three times, against incumbent governors ] and ] in 2002 and 2006, and in the 2003 recall election in which Schwarzenegger replaced Davis as governor.

			===2002 gubernatorial election===
			In ], Camejo ran uncontested in the California Green Party gubernatorial primary. In the general election, he ran as part of the first full slate of Green candidates for all seven of California's partisan constitutional offices. Camejo lost the election to Governor ], but he polled 393,036 votes, for 5.3% of the vote, the largest vote total for a ] in the California governor's race since ], when Henry R. Schmidt of the ] polled 7.1%. Because the San Francisco Green Party endorsed him, Camejo earned more votes in ] than ] gubernatorial nominee ], a rarity in third-party politics.

			===2003 gubernatorial recall election===
			In 2003, he was the endorsed ] candidate for governor (although several other Greens appeared on the ballot) in an unprecedented ] election against ], in which he polled ], coming in fourth in a field of 135 certified candidates. In a strange preview of the divisions about to erupt on the left in the following year, Camejo first cooperated with, and then competed with, fellow recall candidate ].

			===2006 gubernatorial election===
			]
			In ], Camejo made his third bid for Governor of California against incumbent ] and Democratic Party nominee ]. Camejo received 193,553 votes, or 2.3% of the popular vote.

			] criticized Camejo for "lending his support to the right-wing effort to depose California governor ]" by recall in 2004.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/came-s30.shtml\|title=Peter Camejo and the Greens bid for "respectability" in California recall campaign\|publisher=Wsws.org\|date=2003-09-30\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref> However, the ] state convention easily voted to endorse Camejo as a recall replacement candidate.

			==2004 vice-presidential campaign==
			Camejo was submitted as a candidate in the Green Party of California's March 2, 2004, Presidential Preference Primary. Before the primary, he made it known that he was not planning to run for president and that any delegates pledged to him would not be committed to vote for him after the first round. The former gubernatorial candidate received 33,753 votes (75.9%) of the Green Party membership's support in California,<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/sov/2004_primary/sov_summary_pres.pdf\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041022164108/http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/sov/2004_primary/sov_summary_pres.pdf\|url-status=dead\|archive-date=2004-10-22\|title=sov_summary_pres.xls\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref> and 72.7% of the votes in all Green Party primary elections.{{citation needed\|date=December 2021}}

			In June 2004, Camejo campaigned for the vice-presidential spot beside two-time Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader as independents (i.e. Nader never actually joined the Green Party), running against whoever the Green Party nominee might be. They received the endorsement of the ], which gave them ballot access in several states they would not otherwise have. With votes for Nader added in, the Nader/Camejo ticket had what appeared to be an insurmountable 83% of Green voters behind their candidacies going into the Green Party National Convention in Milwaukee.{{citation needed\|date=December 2021}} However many delegates were alienated by non-Green Party member Ralph Nader's wanting the party's hard-won ballot lines, and by Camejo's maneuver serving as a proxy for Nader in California. After an extremely contentious proceeding the convention nominated Green Party members ] and ] for the Green Party ticket instead.<ref>{{cite web\|title = Green Party convention rejects Nader-Camejo ticket - World Socialist Web Site\|url = https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2004/06/gree-j28.html\|website = www.wsws.org\|access-date = 2016-02-12\|first = Patrick\|last = Martin\| date=June 28, 2004 }}</ref> Rejected by the Greens, Nader and Camejo continued their campaign as independent candidates.

			Both Nader and Camejo asserted the main reason they ran in the 2004 election was because there were no other national candidates demanding an immediate withdrawal of American troops from what they believe is an immoral and unconstitutionally pursued ] (though minor party national candidates Green ], ] ], ] candidate ], ] candidate ] and ] candidate ] all strongly opposed the war). More accurately the Nader/Camejo were the only candidates who had a regular voice in the mainstream media arguing for withdrawal, since Ralph Nader was regularly invited to appear on mainstream news, and none of the other candidates received mainstream media coverage.

			The Nader/Camejo ticket came in a very distant third in the election, polling approximately 460,000 votes, or 0.4% of the vote. Camejo's supporters claimed this result vindicated the Nader/Camejo team seeking the Green Party's endorsement (of them as non-Green Party candidates) since Cobb/LaMarche received less than one third that many votes with a total of 119,859 votes (0.1%). This was a drop of 95% compared to the Green Party's 2000 national ticket of Nader and his running mate ]. Camejo supporter's claimed that the difference between these outcomes was made up by Nader/Camejo having four-to-one support compared to Cobb/LaMarche within the Green Party. Camejo's experiences on the 2004 campaign are chronicled in ]'s book, "What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?"<ref>{{Cite web\|url=https://www.thewomandirector.com/\|title=Domain name - Under Construction\|website=www.thewomandirector.com}}</ref>

			The Nader/Camejo Campaign cooperated loosely with an effort by the Green Party Cobb/LaMarche and Libertarian Party Badnarik/Campagna campaigns to do hand recounts across the country in states where vulnerable electronic voting machines had been used and anomalous results were questioned. Nader/Camejo undertook a challenge to the results in New Hampshire.<ref>{{Cite news\|title = Recount New Hampshire\|url = http://www.thenation.com/article/recount-new-hampshire/\|newspaper = The Nation\|access-date = 2016-02-12\|issn = 0027-8378}}</ref>

			==Writings==
			Camejo is the author of ''The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.''

			At the time of his death, Camejo was engaged in writing ''North Star: A Memoir,'' published in May 2010 by ].<ref>{{cite web\|last=Camejo\|first=Peter\|url=http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/North-Star-A-Memoir\|title=North Star: A Memoir\|publisher=Haymarket Books\|access-date=2011-01-01}}</ref>

			==Conflict within the Green Party==
			In the run-up to the June 6, 2006, primary elections in California, Camejo helped create a cadre group within the larger Green Party of California, the Green IDEA (later known as IDEA PAC), a California ] espousing "Independence, Democracy, Empowerment, and Accountability," to support candidates for county councils, the locally elected leadership bodies of the Green Party of California. The IDEA PAC was not raising or spending money as of 2010.

			==Personal life==
			Camejo died of ] on September 13, 2008, at his home in ].<ref>Judy Lin, , Associated Press (September 15, 2008).</ref> He was survived by his wife, Morella Camejo; stepdaughter Alexandra Baquero, stepson Victor Baquero, and brothers Antonio and Daniel Camejo and Danny Ratner.<ref>{{cite web\|last=Gordon\|first=Rachel\|url=http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/15-2\|title=Peter Camejo Dies - Helped Found Green Party\|publisher=CommonDreams.org\|access-date=2011-01-01\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605071451/http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/09/15-2\|archive-date=2011-06-05\|url-status=dead}}</ref> He last worked as the Chief Executive Officer of Progressive Asset Management,<ref>{{cite web\|author=Created by WJDesigns \|url=http://www.progressive-asset.com/index.html \|title=Progressive Asset Management - Specializing in Socially Responsible Investing \|publisher=Progressive-asset.com \|access-date=2011-01-01 \|url-status=dead \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111163811/http://www.progressive-asset.com/index.html \|archive-date=January 11, 2010 }}</ref> a financial investment firm that encourages socially responsible projects.

			==Footnotes==
			{{reflist\|2}}

	==External links==		==External links==
			* {{World Sailing\|pedro-camejo-guanche\|id=VENPC1}}
	*
			* {{Olympics.com\|pedro-camejo-guanche}}
	*
			* , 2004.
	*
			* , 2002
	*
			*
	*
			* Catalogue entry at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis
	*
			* {{C-SPAN\|1007409}}
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*
	*

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Latest revision as of 20:33, 20 December 2024

Venezuelan American politician In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Camejo and the second or maternal family name is Guanche.

Peter Camejo

Personal details
Born	Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche (1939-12-31)December 31, 1939 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	September 13, 2008(2008-09-13) (aged 68) Folsom, California, U.S.
Political party	Socialist Workers (before 1980) Green (2002–2004; 2006–2008) Reform (2004–2006)
Spouse	Morella Camejo
Parent	Peter Camejo (father)
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Peter Miguel Camejo Guanche (December 31, 1939 – September 13, 2008) was a Venezuelan American author, activist, politician and Sailing Olympian. In the 2004 United States presidential election, he was selected by independent candidate Ralph Nader as his vice-presidential running mate on a ticket which had the endorsement of the Reform Party.

Camejo was a three-time Green Party gubernatorial candidate in California, most recently in 2006, when he received 2.3 percent of the vote. Camejo also ran in the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election finishing fourth in a field of 135 candidates (2.8%), and in 2002, finishing third with 5.3%. In the 1976 presidential election he ran for the Socialist Workers Party, receiving 90,310 votes.

Early life

Camejo was a first-generation American of Venezuelan descent. At the time of his birth, his mother was residing in the Queens borough of New York City. Although Camejo spent most of his early childhood in Venezuela, he was a "natural born citizen" of the United States and therefore constitutionally eligible for the U.S. Presidency later in life.

His parents, Elvia Guanche and Dr. Daniel Camejo Octavio, divorced when their son was seven. Camejo then resided with his mother in the United States and returned to Venezuela during summer holidays to visit family. In later youth Camejo showed talent as a yachtsman, competing in 1960 for Venezuela at the Rome Olympics with his father in the Star class, where they took 21st place.

Camejo entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, involving himself in soccer and, increasingly, left-wing politics. Later he studied history at the University of California, Berkeley, where he won election to student council. His participation in a protest of the Vietnam War in 1967 led to his suspension from the university for "using an unauthorized microphone." Then-governor Ronald Reagan deemed Camejo one of California's ten most dangerous citizens due to his presence at anti-war protests. He also participated in one of the Selma civil rights marches.

Politics

Initially, Camejo was a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a Trotskyist party. As a branch organizer, he sought to reorient the SWP towards the student movement.

Camejo's first political campaign on behalf of the SWP came in 1967 when as a 27-year old he ran for mayor Berkeley, California. He was the SWP's nominee for President in 1976 and won 90,986 votes, or 0.1%.

While a member of the Socialist Workers Party, Camejo wrote Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877. The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, published by the party's publishing house, Pathfinder Press. He also met with J. Posadas.

The SWP's policy was to turn its members into "proletarians" by having them take jobs in factories and advocate for a worker-based class struggle. By 1980, Camejo came to disagree with this policy in favor of democratic socialism, and the SWP expelled him. He led the third dissident group of the SWP and formed North Star Network in 1983.

In 1992 Camejo committed $20,000 of his own money toward establishing the Progressive Alliance of Alameda County, an organizational effort that did not sustain itself.

Camejo was quoted in 2002 as claiming that he was a watermelon—green on the outside but red on the inside.

However, in January 2004 Camejo initiated the Avocado Declaration which compares Greens, to avocados. "An avocado is Green on the outside and Green on the inside."

Just over a month after the 2004 election, Camejo was elected as one of California's delegates to the National Committee of the Green Party and established the GDI, "Greens for Democracy and Independence," a cadre group within the larger Green Party of California that ran candidates for local Green County Councils. At the 2005 Green Party National Convention, Camejo stated that he would not be a candidate for President in 2008.

Camejo wrote a number of articles concerning the divisions evident in the Green Party in the aftermath of the turbulent 2004 national convention, continuing the themes of the Avocado Declaration in opposing attempts to "cozy up" to the newly formed Progressive Democrats of America.

In August 2008 he attended the convention of the Peace and Freedom Party in order to personally endorse Nader's presidential candidacy.

Gubernatorial campaigns

Camejo ran for Governor of California three times, against incumbent governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2002 and 2006, and in the 2003 recall election in which Schwarzenegger replaced Davis as governor.

2002 gubernatorial election

In 2002, Camejo ran uncontested in the California Green Party gubernatorial primary. In the general election, he ran as part of the first full slate of Green candidates for all seven of California's partisan constitutional offices. Camejo lost the election to Governor Gray Davis, but he polled 393,036 votes, for 5.3% of the vote, the largest vote total for a third-party in the California governor's race since 1946, when Henry R. Schmidt of the Prohibition Party polled 7.1%. Because the San Francisco Green Party endorsed him, Camejo earned more votes in San Francisco than Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon, a rarity in third-party politics.

2003 gubernatorial recall election

In 2003, he was the endorsed Green Party candidate for governor (although several other Greens appeared on the ballot) in an unprecedented California recall election against Gray Davis, in which he polled 242,247 votes for 2.8%, coming in fourth in a field of 135 certified candidates. In a strange preview of the divisions about to erupt on the left in the following year, Camejo first cooperated with, and then competed with, fellow recall candidate Arianna Huffington.

2006 gubernatorial election

In 2006, Camejo made his third bid for Governor of California against incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Party nominee Phil Angelides. Camejo received 193,553 votes, or 2.3% of the popular vote.

Peter Daniels criticized Camejo for "lending his support to the right-wing effort to depose California governor Gray Davis" by recall in 2004. However, the Green Party state convention easily voted to endorse Camejo as a recall replacement candidate.

2004 vice-presidential campaign

Camejo was submitted as a candidate in the Green Party of California's March 2, 2004, Presidential Preference Primary. Before the primary, he made it known that he was not planning to run for president and that any delegates pledged to him would not be committed to vote for him after the first round. The former gubernatorial candidate received 33,753 votes (75.9%) of the Green Party membership's support in California, and 72.7% of the votes in all Green Party primary elections.

In June 2004, Camejo campaigned for the vice-presidential spot beside two-time Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader as independents (i.e. Nader never actually joined the Green Party), running against whoever the Green Party nominee might be. They received the endorsement of the Reform Party, which gave them ballot access in several states they would not otherwise have. With votes for Nader added in, the Nader/Camejo ticket had what appeared to be an insurmountable 83% of Green voters behind their candidacies going into the Green Party National Convention in Milwaukee. However many delegates were alienated by non-Green Party member Ralph Nader's wanting the party's hard-won ballot lines, and by Camejo's maneuver serving as a proxy for Nader in California. After an extremely contentious proceeding the convention nominated Green Party members David Cobb and Pat LaMarche for the Green Party ticket instead. Rejected by the Greens, Nader and Camejo continued their campaign as independent candidates.

Both Nader and Camejo asserted the main reason they ran in the 2004 election was because there were no other national candidates demanding an immediate withdrawal of American troops from what they believe is an immoral and unconstitutionally pursued War in Iraq (though minor party national candidates Green David Cobb, Libertarian Michael Badnarik, Constitution Party candidate Michael Peroutka, Socialist Party USA candidate Walt Brown and Socialist Workers Party candidate Róger Calero all strongly opposed the war). More accurately the Nader/Camejo were the only candidates who had a regular voice in the mainstream media arguing for withdrawal, since Ralph Nader was regularly invited to appear on mainstream news, and none of the other candidates received mainstream media coverage.

The Nader/Camejo ticket came in a very distant third in the election, polling approximately 460,000 votes, or 0.4% of the vote. Camejo's supporters claimed this result vindicated the Nader/Camejo team seeking the Green Party's endorsement (of them as non-Green Party candidates) since Cobb/LaMarche received less than one third that many votes with a total of 119,859 votes (0.1%). This was a drop of 95% compared to the Green Party's 2000 national ticket of Nader and his running mate Winona LaDuke. Camejo supporter's claimed that the difference between these outcomes was made up by Nader/Camejo having four-to-one support compared to Cobb/LaMarche within the Green Party. Camejo's experiences on the 2004 campaign are chronicled in Jurgen Vsych's book, "What Was Ralph Nader Thinking?"

The Nader/Camejo Campaign cooperated loosely with an effort by the Green Party Cobb/LaMarche and Libertarian Party Badnarik/Campagna campaigns to do hand recounts across the country in states where vulnerable electronic voting machines had been used and anomalous results were questioned. Nader/Camejo undertook a challenge to the results in New Hampshire.

Writings

Camejo is the author of The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.

At the time of his death, Camejo was engaged in writing North Star: A Memoir, published in May 2010 by Haymarket Books.

Conflict within the Green Party

In the run-up to the June 6, 2006, primary elections in California, Camejo helped create a cadre group within the larger Green Party of California, the Green IDEA (later known as IDEA PAC), a California political action committee espousing "Independence, Democracy, Empowerment, and Accountability," to support candidates for county councils, the locally elected leadership bodies of the Green Party of California. The IDEA PAC was not raising or spending money as of 2010.

Personal life

Camejo died of lymphoma on September 13, 2008, at his home in Folsom, California. He was survived by his wife, Morella Camejo; stepdaughter Alexandra Baquero, stepson Victor Baquero, and brothers Antonio and Daniel Camejo and Danny Ratner. He last worked as the Chief Executive Officer of Progressive Asset Management, a financial investment firm that encourages socially responsible projects.

Footnotes

"Nader For President 2004". www.votenader.org. Archived from the original on October 9, 2007.
Seelye, Katharine Q. (May 13, 2004). "THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: THE INDEPENDENT; Reform Party Backs Nader, Offering Line On Ballots". New York Times. Mississippi; Kansas; Michigan; Colorado; Montana; Florida; South Carolina. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
"Ancestry of Peter Camejo". Wargs.com. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
"Peter Camejo". Olympedia. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
^ "Peter Camejo, 68, Dies; '04 Nader Pick" AP, September 13, 2008, 9:46 p.m. ET, in the New York Times
"The Cochranite Legacy". Marxists.org. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
"SWP Slate Files in California Contest," The Militant, vol. 31, no. 3 (Jan. 16, 1967), pg. 1.
"Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877". Pathfinderpress.com. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
Wenz, John (November 2017). "UFOs, dolphins, nuclear war and communism: the stranger than sci-fi political party". Syfy Wire. Syfy. Archived from the original on February 7, 2019. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
John Kelly (October 28, 2022). The Twilight of World Trotskyism. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1000816457.
Robert Jackson Alexander (1991). International Trotskyism, 1929-1985 | A Documented Analysis of the Movement. Duke University Press. p. 893. ISBN 0822309750.
"Progressive Alliance of Alameda County - KeyWiki". keywiki.org. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
Herel, Suzanne. "Multimedia (image)". SF Gate. Archived from the original on November 15, 2005. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
"The Avocado Declaration, a statement by Peter Camejo and the Avocado Education Project". www.cagreens.org. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
"S/R 39: Call for a Green Committee for Democracy and Independence". www.greens.org. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
"Greens for Democracy and Independence". December 5, 2006. Archived from the original on December 5, 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
"Peter Camejo and the Greens bid for "respectability" in California recall campaign". Wsws.org. September 30, 2003. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
"sov_summary_pres.xls" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2004. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
Martin, Patrick (June 28, 2004). "Green Party convention rejects Nader-Camejo ticket - World Socialist Web Site". www.wsws.org. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
"Domain name - Under Construction". www.thewomandirector.com.
"Recount New Hampshire". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
Camejo, Peter. "North Star: A Memoir". Haymarket Books. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
Judy Lin, Peter Camejo; Nader's Running Mate in 2004, Associated Press (September 15, 2008).
Gordon, Rachel. "Peter Camejo Dies - Helped Found Green Party". CommonDreams.org. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
Created by WJDesigns. "Progressive Asset Management - Specializing in Socially Responsible Investing". Progressive-asset.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2011.

External links

Peter Camejo at World Sailing
Peter Camejo at Olympics.com
CNN Factsheet On Peter Camejo, 2004.
San Francisco Chronicle campaign profile, 2002
California election results
Peter Camejo Papers Catalogue entry at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis
Appearances on C-SPAN

Party political offices
Preceded byLinda Jenness Evelyn Reed	Socialist Workers Party nominee for President of the United States 1976	Succeeded byRichard Congress Clifton DeBerry Andrew Pulley
Preceded byEzola Foster	Reform nominee for Vice President of the United States 2004	Succeeded byFrank McEnulty

v t e Reform Party of the United States of America
Presidential tickets	1996: Perot/Choate 2000: Buchanan/Foster 2004: Nader/Camejo 2008: Weill/McEnulty 2012: Barnett/Cross 2016: De La Fuente/Steinberg 2020: De La Fuente/Richardson 2024: Kennedy/Shanahan
Primaries or convention	1996 primaries 2000 primaries 2004 primaries 2008 primaries 2012 primaries 2016 primaries 2020 primaries 2024 convention
Other notable individuals	Russ Verney Jesse Ventura Mae Schunk Richard Lamm Ed Zschau Buddy Roemer Donald Trump
Parties by state	New Jersey New York
List of third-party and independent performances in United States elections

v t e Socialist Workers Party (United States)
National Secretaries	James P. Cannon (1938–1953) Farrell Dobbs (1953–1972) Jack Barnes (1972–present)
Presidential tickets	1948: Dobbs/Carlson 1952: Dobbs/Weiss 1956: Dobbs/Weiss 1960: Dobbs/Weiss 1964: DeBerry/Shaw 1968: Halstead/Boutelle 1972: Jenness/Pulley+Reed/DeBerry 1976: Camejo/Reid 1980: DeBerry/Zimmermann+Pulley/Zimmermann+Congress/Zimmermann 1984: Mason/Zimmermann 1988: Warren/Mickells 1992: Warren/Reid 1996: Harris/Garza 2000: Harris/Trowe 2004: Calero/Hawkins+Harris/Trowe 2008: Calero/Kennedy+Harris/Kennedy 2012: Harris/DeLuca 2016: Kennedy/Hart 2020: Kennedy/Jarrett
Parties by state and territory	District of Columbia
Related topics	History of the socialist movement in the United States Pathfinder tendency The Militant Trotskyism

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