MichaelMoore.com

With 1.8%, Berg says he's the winner

By Jeff Gammage / Philadelphia Inquirer

The day after drawing 1.8 percent of the vote in Delaware, congressional peace candidate Michael Berg was tired - and satisfied.

"I got to get my message out to people who weren't in the choir," he said. "Frequently when I do the peace demonstrations, that's who's standing there, the choir. But occasionally a few people would come up to me afterward and say, 'You got me thinking.' "

Berg, on the Green Party ticket, received 4,463 votes out of about 251,000 cast for the state's one House seat, finishing fourth among four candidates as Republican Mike Castle easily won an eighth term.

Berg, 61, became an international spokesman against the war after his 26-year-old son, Nick, a radio-tower contractor, was abducted and beheaded by Islamic militants in Iraq. His campaign led some closest to him to accuse him of exploiting Nick's death.

Yesterday, Berg said the House race was his first and last run for public office. The travel and time proved demanding, the inner workings of the political process disappointing.

"I'm just not cut out for the politics of politics," he said.

Berg called for immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. In exit polls on Tuesday, voters - whose ballots created a Democratic tide that swept away Republican control of the House - repeatedly cited their dissatisfaction with President Bush's handling of the war. The issue on which Berg based his candidacy had moved mainstream.

"Many, many people deserve credit for that, and I in my little corner of the world, a little bit of it," he said yesterday.

Berg plans to continue speaking, and wants to spend time with his wife, Suzanne, and their month-old grandson. He wondered if there might be a new way to contribute, something "pro-peace," not antiwar.

"I kind of feel like today's a new day, a new page," he said.

Berg also said he was halfway through writing a book, a project delayed by the campaign. "I want to have something to leave my grandson, to let him know where I stood on things," he said. "Something to leave for him when he turns 18, and isn't being influenced by his parents or others who might disagree with what I've done."