AUGUSTA – Supporters of Sen. John F. Kerry launched a take-no-prisoners assault Wednesday against struggling independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, charging that his attempt to get on the ballot in Maine was illegal and that he had taken thousands of dollars from contributors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth political action committee.

Meanwhile, officials at Maine Democratic Party headquarters insisted an appeal Wednesday by state party Chairwoman Dorothy Melanson to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court challenging Nader’s inclusion on the Maine ballot was not intended to represent the party’s position on the issue.

“This challenge was brought by Dorothy Melanson as an individual, not by the party,” said Chris Harris, a spokesman for the state Democratic organization.

After a Tuesday campaign stop in Maine, Nader was busy Wednesday defending his right to be on the state ballot and trying to explain $13,500 in contributions to his campaign from members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a conservative PAC opposing Kerry’s bid for the presidency.

Nadeam Elshami of the Washington, D.C.-based United Progressives for Victory sounded the alarm on the Nader contributions after analyzing campaign contribution disclosure forms indicating some members of the Swift Boat PAC had also contributed to Nader. The spokesman said UPV has documented over $100,000 in cash and known in-kind contributions to Nader by Republican donors and consultants.

“I would say that Ralph Nader is the not-so-secret weapon of the Republican Party,” Elshami said Wednesday.

Despite the Swift Boat contributions, Nader adamantly maintained Tuesday that the Republican Party was not bankrolling his campaign. Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for Nader, said the contributions by those who gave the Swift Boat PAC in no way substantiated arguments by Democrats that Nader was being bankrolled by Republicans.

“It proves nothing,” Zeese said. ‘These are individuals, these are not contributions from the Swift Boat PAC, whose activities we have criticized.”

Nader continues to be dogged by his decision to run as an independent for president instead of serving as the standard bearer for the Green Party as he did in 2000. Nader was blamed four years ago by Democrats for acting as a spoiler, depriving former Vice-President Al Gore of a certain win. Nader won nearly 6 percent of the vote in 2000.

Nader’s decision to run as an independent divided Maine Greens into two camps, those who support the party’s nominee, David Cobb, and those who are backing Nader. Elshami said the UPV has attracted the support of another Green Party member, Karen D’Andrea, who will organize a grassroots effort targeting potential Nader voters in Maine

“Any progressive who believes that voting for Ralph Nader in this election would actually bring about change in this country is sadly mistaken,” she said in a prepared statement. “Progressives have the power to kick George Bush out of office on November 2 and the responsibility to shape the policies of a John Kerry administration starting on November 3.”

In Augusta Wednesday, Melanson appealed a Superior Court ruling affirming that the Maine Secretary of State’s Office had acted in accordance with Maine law in determining that Nader had a right to be on the ballot. Melanson insisted that a statement certifying that each of Nader’s four Maine electors were not members of a any political party before March 1 should have appeared on each of the 579 petitions circulated by the Nader campaign.

Michael Mahoney, a lawyer for the Maine Democratic Party who was representing Melanson, told the state supreme court that while certification of unenrollment was forwarded to the Secretary of State’s Office in the form of a separate document, the information should have been included in, or attached to each of the petitions. The certification was made to the state by each of the local municipal registrar of voters in the communities where the Nader electors reside.

“It’s our view, your honor, that the intent [of Maine law] was to provide voters with information regarding the unenrollment status of the candidates that they are being asked to endorse,” Mahoney told Chief Justice Leigh Saufley.

The court has to meet a statutory deadline next Tuesday to determine the outcome of the appeal based on several sections of conflicting language in the law that three of the justices described as “ambiguous.” Representing the Secretary of State’s Office, Assistant Attorney General Phyllis Gardiner said the state had “met all of the requirements” under state law in evaluating Melanson’s challenge.

“There is no dispute that these candidates have met the requirement,” she said.

Gardiner added “there is just no basis in the statutory scheme” that the Legislature was intending that voters be required to see unenrollment information on each petition.

The notion that the Maine Democratic Party should somehow be isolated by the actions of its chairwoman were ridiculed Wednesday by Maine Republican Party Executive Director Dwayne Bickford and Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese. Emphasizing that Melanson was synonymous with the Maine Democratic Party by most Mainers who recognized her name, Bickford wondered why the state Democratic party would allow its own attorney to represent Melanson if it wasn’t supporting her efforts to keep Nader off the ballot.

“What other conclusions would voters draw when Democrats across the country are challenging Nader’s ballot access?” Bickford said.

Officials at the Secretary of State’s Office said Wednesday that Melanson had mentioned that the Democratic National Committee was underwriting the costs of the Nader challenge. Zeese said Melanson had not only wasted the valuable tax dollars of Mainers by pushing for the Secretary of State’s challenge but had gone even further by taking up the time of a Superior Court justice with a request for a review. The most expensive phase of the proceedings arrived Wednesday, he said, when Melanson took her appeal to a special Augusta convening of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

“What a waste of money on a frivolous lawsuit,” Zeese said. “The Democrats should be made to pay the costs. And if they’re so concerned on separating their party from their chairwoman, then Dottie Melanson should step up and foot the bill.”