"Green Party candidates have been known to play the spoiler role in an election -- just ask Al Gore, who might be president if Ralph Nader hadn't run as the Green nominee in 2000.

In Virginia's Senate race pitting Republican Sen. George Allen against Democrat James Webb, the third-party candidate and potential spoiler is Glenda "Gail" Parker, who is actually a Green of a different color.

In fact, she's not a Green at all, and that's where the confusion lies.

Parker will appear on the ballot under the banner of the Independent Green Party. Political analysts suggest that her support -- about 2 percent in the polls -- comes from the name association with the Greens, a leftish party that not only advocates environmental stewardship but also takes liberal positions on abortion, economics and social justice issues.

But the Independent Greens promote themselves as "common-sense conservative Greens."

"We're conservative, unlike the national Green Party," said Parker, 59, a resident of Alexandria.

Parker is campaigning as a fiscal conservative but refuses to give her position on all but two issues -- her desire to shrink the deficit and her advocacy of a national network of high-speed rail. She touts rail as a cure-all for numerous problems, including traffic congestion and the war in Iraq. A rail network would lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil, she says.

Although support for her is meager, it could make a difference in what has become a tight race. Political analysts agree that most of Parker's support would come at Webb's expense as Green voters are disproportionately on the left of the political spectrum.

"There is huge name confusion going on," said Mark J. Rozell, a political science professor at George Mason University who suspects that most of Parker's support comes solely from her implied association with the Greens.

Scott McLarty, a spokesman for the Green Party, said the Independent Greens are essentially a Virginia phenomenon, and a recent one at that, beginning with disaffected Green Party members.

"They have no connection to us at all," McLarty said.

Parker, a former Pentagon budget analyst and Air Force Reserve officer who goes by the nickname "Gail for Rail," has been aggressive and unconventional in her campaign. She traveled across Virginia to obtain the necessary signatures from all 11 of the state's congressional districts to get her name on the ballot.

In June, she essentially crashed Webb's victory party in the primary election, taking the microphone from a country band and "welcoming" Webb to the race as confused Webb supporters tried to figure out who she was.

She has a campy campaign jingle that can be heard on the Independent Greens' Web site. It features the refrain "Let's vote for Gail! She's for light rail!" The jingle breaks down in the verse with a forced rhyme of "independent" and "Senate."

Parker said she believes the Green name limits her candidacy rather than enhances it. In hindsight, she said, she would prefer an affiliation such as the Independent Party, which would appeal to a broader swath of the electorate.

Kristian Denny Todd, a spokeswoman for Webb, said the campaign does not include Parker in its internal polling. Still, she acknowledged that confusion about a third-party candidate is always a concern in a close election.

The presence of a Green Party candidate on the ballot can have a major impact on the race. In 2000, Nader ran as a Green and received 3 percent of the vote. Many analysts think his candidacy cost Gore the presidential election and put George W. Bush into office.

Allen had been considered a strong favorite to win a second term and was exploring a presidential bid in 2008. But he has stumbled, first after being videotaped during a political rally calling a Webb campaign worker of Indian descent "macaca," considered by some to be a racial slur. He also has rebutted accusations that he used racist language and liked Confederate symbols.

Parker said she has considered the possibility that she could end up as a spoiler in the race. That's all right with her.

"We have a legal right to be in this race," she said. "I'm a bona fide candidate, a serious candidate."" (Matthew Barakat, The Washington Post, November 2, 2006)