Consumer activist Ralph Nader, known more recently as a serial presidential candidate, has booked Madison's Orpheum Theatre for a campaign rally Sept. 5.

Nader packed a capacity crowd of about 2,000 people into the Orpheum in 2000 when he was the Green Party candidate, but that was eight years and many hanging chads ago.

"We're hoping to fill it again, but maybe that's a large task," said Justin Richardson of Madison, a state co-coordinator of Nader's campaign.

The 74-year-old Nader is running as an independent this time, and he continues to be dogged by criticism from some Democrats that he took votes from Al Gore in 2000. He has been called a spoiler and an egomaniac. One company sells yard signs that say, "Ralph Nader: Unsafe at Any Speed."

"Whenever people say things like that, it's almost always to avoid talking about his position on issues, which a lot of people agree with," Richardson said.

In the 2000 election, Nader took 2.7 percent of the nationwide vote. That slipped to 0.3 percent four years ago. He's always been more popular locally than in the country as a whole, winning 5 percent of the vote in Dane County in 2000.

Some polls in battleground states have Nader getting 6 percent to 8 percent of the vote this year, and his appearance at a rally in Denver on Wednesday, where the Democratic National Convention was being held, attracted a crowd variously estimated by news organizations as between 1,000 and 4,000 people.

His Madison appearance is set for 7:30 p.m. A $5 donation is suggested for students and a $10 donation for others. The Orpheum Theatre is at 216 State St.

— Doug Erickson