PORTLAND – A visibly agitated and disappointed Ralph Nader lashed out Tuesday at the Maine Democratic Party which has decided to appeal a Superior Court ruling that allowed the independent presidential candidate to remain on the state ballot.

“It’s pretty reprehensible,” Nader said of the appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. “I think they’re telling our tens of thousands of Maine voters: ‘We don’t want you to have the opportunity to vote for Nader, and the only way we can enforce that is to keep him off the ballot in Maine.’ That’s a very authoritarian demonstration of political bigotry.”

Democratic Party officials have been sending mixed messages over the past two days on their decision to appeal to the high court certain interpretations of state election laws made by Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky.

Chris Harris, the party’s communications director, said Monday that he believed the party would abide by the Superior Court ruling. That decision was handed down after the court rejected arguments by Democratic Party Chairwoman Dorothy M. Melanson, who claimed Gwadosky had committed errors of law in determining Nader was eligible to be on the Nov. 2 ballot.

On Tuesday, Harris said that it “turns out that we are” appealing the Kennebec County Superior Court decision by Justice S. Kirk Studstrup. But there remained some confusion between court officials and the party Tuesday over where the hearing on the appeal would be held. A clerk for the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said the appeal would be heard at noon today in Augusta while Harris said the hearing would be in Portland.

Regardless of the venue, the Nader camp chafed over the Democrats’ decision to move forward with the court case.

“They know they can’t win,” said Kevin Zeese, a Nader spokesman. “They’re just forcing us to use more of our reserves to fight it. It’s pretty disgusting.”

Nader was in Portland Tuesday for a speaking engagement that cost listeners $10 each. Meeting with reporters before the event, the consumer rights activist rebuked Democrats for supporting Sen. John Kerry after he proved during last week’s presidential debate to be “every bit as hawklike” as President Bush in waging war in Iraq.

“A vote for Kerry is now unfortunately a vote for war,” Nader said. “An endless Vietnam-type quagmire that Kerry believes will end with victory. The U.S. military and corporate occupation of Iraq will not end with victory. It will end with civil war, with pillage and plunder by the resistance and with no exit strategy. It will bleed our troops and bleed tens of billions of dollars that should be better used back home [while] alienating more people around the world.”

Nader said he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq within six months of his election and replace them with international peacekeepers. He also pledged to provide health care for all, a livable family wage, and a crackdown on corporate fraud that “is stealing from consumers and defrauding worker pensions.”

Kerry supporters were handing out campaign literature Tuesday outside the Pleasant Street hall where Nader met with reporters while Green Party officials also urged Mainers not to vote for Nader in what polls show is a tight presidential race.

In 2000, Nader was the Green Party’s presidential nominee and won nearly 6 percent of the vote in Maine. His attempt to get the Greens to endorse his candidacy to obtain ballot status failed this year after the party chose to run David Cobb and former Maine Green gubernatorial candidate Patricia LaMarche as their respective presidential and vice presidential nominees.

Jonathan Carter, another Maine Green who formerly ran for governor, is among the party members who will be voting for Nader instead of Kerry or the Cobb-LaMarche ticket. He praised Nader as a man who has devoted his life to repressing and eliminating tyranny from American democracy.

“He’s a man who we should all honor for his hard work,” he said. “When I hear people say Ralph Nader is only running for president because he has an ego – nothing could be further from the truth. This man is selfless.”

After the rally, Nader signed copies of his book before continuing his five-day New England campaign by traveling to the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont.