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It all started innocently enough. Goldhaber attended the Reform Party nominating convention in San Diego in mid-August as an old friend of Hagelin. After watching ultraconservative Pat Buchanan sweep past Hagelin to win the party's nomination for President, however, Goldhaber was incensed. He and Hagelin claim Buchanan unfairly stuffed the ballot box in the early rounds of the nomination process and later resorted to strong-arm tactics by locking Hagelin delegates out of a crucial meeting when the party's fate was decided. Buchanan denies any wrongdoing, and the Federal Election Commission has formally recognized him as the legit Reform Party candidate. But Goldhaber is still seething. "I decided this outrageous behavior couldn't stand." A week later he easily won the nomination for Vice-President on the ticket of the Natural Law Party -- a group Hagelin has spearheaded for the past decade. "I consider him heroic," says Hagelin. "On the day he sold his company, and was planning a much-deserved vacation, he was swept up by the spirit and rose to the responsibility." NO LUNATIC. Goldhaber has had a high-profile Silicon Valley career. His Cybergold Inc. was a leading Internet incentives company when it sold to MyPoints for $157 million in stock. Earlier in his career, he ran Kaleida., a multimedia joint venture of Apple Computer and IBM, as well as Centram Systems West, which developed TOPS, the first local-area network for Macs and PCs. Now, for Goldhaber, tilting at windmills is nearly a full-time job. He's on the road or on the phone just about constantly, talking over issues or strategy with colleagues, speaking on radio talk shows, addressing student groups, and schmoozing with his old friends in the high-tech community. The goal: to raise awareness about issues that Hagelin and he believe are vital to the country. Goldhaber's no lunatic. He knows full well he can't win -- or even make much of a showing. But he points to a long history of third-party issues -- such as the abolition of slavery and the creation of Social Security -- that ultimately became mainstream. Hagelin and Goldhaber are calling for campaign-finance reform, a prevention-oriented health-care system, increased funding of public education, a flat income tax, decriminalizing most drug offenses, and an end to heavy-handed military intervention in foreign lands. They believe the two major parties are too beholden to special interests. "They won't be able to change unless a loud and clear third-party voice shocks them into appropriate behavior," says Goldhaber. While the Natural Law platform is an odd amalgam of positions plucked from the left and the right, there's one belief that both candidates hold dear that seems to come right out of left field: Both practice transcendental meditation and believe it can be a factor in bringing peace to the world's trouble spots. Goldhaber has been meditating daily for 37 years. "It's a proven stress reliever," he says. "The outbreak of local conflicts is a result of lots of stress in the environment, so stress-reduction techniques are a useful tool for avoiding conflict." "NOBLE QUEST." Does this stuff turn off potential supporters and donors? "People get beyond it quickly. They don't think of me as a nut -- except my wife, who just walked in and heard me talking about this," he says, laughing heartily. Goldhaber has persuaded a handful of tech execs to donate $40,000 or $50,000 to the campaign. His pitch: Entrepreneurs should be running the country, not bureaucrats. He's also soliciting advice from tech leaders about such things as how to bridge the digital divide and how to develop tax policies that will stimulate corporate involvement in improving public education. His business friends don't think he has gone off the deep end, though they were surprised to see him running for office. "I was sitting on my patio, reading the Sunday paper and saw a story about how Nat was a candidate for Vice-President. I said, 'What the hell!' " recalls Vern Raburn, CEO of Eclipse Aviation and former president of the Paul Allen Group. Raburn, who has given the Natural Law Party a small contribution and plans on voting for Hagelin and Goldhaber, says he shares their belief in small but effective government. Of Goldhaber, he says: "He's involved in an offshoot of an offshoot. Most people would say, 'Why waste your time?' But Nat has strong beliefs. I view this as a noble quest." It's fun, too. To Goldhaber, campaigning is a lot like running a startup and getting contributions like raising money from venture capitalists. He feels the same excitement, the same pitch-in spirit. "The main difference is, I'm the product this time," he quips. The one thing he doesn't like about his campaign role is that he's often perceived as no more than Hagelin's financial backer. "I'd like to be seen as a real, honest-to-goodness contributor," he says. But he tries not to get tense about it: "I'll settle for being seen as the moneybags if we can get our message across." Goldhaber chipped in $50,000 to the campaign and plans on siphoning more from his personal fortune into the effort. RADICAL ROOTS. Goldhaber has always been interested in politics. His activist roots got an early start when, in 1964 at age 16, he stood on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley and heard firebrand Mario Savio urge students to "put your body on the machine" during the Free Speech protests. As a college student at Berkeley and the Maharishi University in Iowa, he took part in antiwar protests and later flirted with the left wing Peace & Freedom Party. But over the years he has swung toward the right on government fiscal policies -- though not on social issues. He supports abortion, gun control, and prison reform. Being a political candidate still feels a bit weird, though. "I've always loved the substance of government but hated the politics." Now he's in deep. And he can thank Pat Buchanan for that. Hamm writes about the software industry and tech people for Business Week in New York |
