Maine ? Ralph Nader didn’t have any luck in Washington, D.C., with a lawsuit alleging a conspiracy to keep him off the 2004 presidential ballot. So he’s taking his case to Washington County, a sparsely populated locale at the nation’s easternmost tip.

The lawsuit five years after President George W. Bush beat Democrat John Kerry contends the Kerry campaign and Democratic leaders conspired to keep Nader off the ballot in Maine and more than a dozen other states.

Nader’s lawyer, Oliver Hall, said there was a concerted effort by Nader’s enemies to use courts as a weapon to sabotage Nader and his running mate, the late Peter Camejo. The lawsuit targets Kerry’s presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Maine Democratic Party.

In the end, Nader and Camejo, running as independents, appeared on the ballot in 34 states and collected only three-tenths of a percent of the nation’s popular vote.