Perennial outsider candidate Ralph Nader says he's running for president again to highlight what he calls a "corporate state" in which government works on behalf of businesses at the expense of citizens.

Corporations and their executives "hijack" state and local governments by buying influence through campaign contributions and advertisements, landing key government jobs overseeing economic issues, and threatening to move overseas, among other things, Nader said in a telephone interview last week with the Wisconsin State Journal.

"This is not a country where people rule," Nader said. "This is a country where corporations rule to the minutest level."

Nader, 74, a consumer activist, will bring his campaign to Madison on Friday as he embarks on a cross-country tour leading up to the November election. He is not yet on the ballot in Wisconsin, but his campaign said in a press release Monday that he will file qualifying materials for a ballot spot at 1:30 p.m. today.

In 2000, Nader captured 94,070 votes in Wisconsin, or 3.6 percent of all votes cast that year. In 2004, he barely received half a percent, a total of 16,390 votes.

Nader plans to be in Milwaukee and Chicago on Saturday, he said, and possibly at Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo.