Nader’s presidential campaign is coming to N.M.

Supporters of Ralph Nader’s longshot independent presidential bid are on their way to New Mexico to try to get him on the ballot.

New Mexico has one of the more restrictive ballot-access laws for independents, so Nader supporters will have to gather 7,000 signatures in two weeks.

The campaign sent out an e-mail Monday morning in an attempt to raise $10,000 in New Mexico to send supporters here to gather signatures. It announced Wednesday evening that 149 people had given a total of $12,607.27 – an average of $84 per donation.

“That’s exactly what we needed when we needed it,” the campaign wrote in an e-mail to supporters announcing that Nader’s “road-trippers” are on their way to Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

One of them is Emily Brackett.

“I am so proud to be a part of a campaign that is intended for people who feel abandoned or let down by our political system,” she said in the e-mail. “May our efforts begin in the deserts of New Mexico and may they finally end and bring peace and resolution to the ravaged deserts of Iraq.”

If Nader’s Web site is any indication, New Mexico is one of his campaign’s early focuses.