DES MOINES – Yoo-hoo! Mr. Gore – some grassroots supporters are ramping up their efforts to encourage you to run for president in 2008.

The Draft Gore Committee launched its first radio ad on Monday in Iowa. The 30-second ad, dubbed “You Who,” will go national in July. It features a chorus of voices seeking Gore’s attention and urging him to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

The political action committee, which claims to have gathered 94,000 signatures on an online petition, is not officially affiliated with the former vice president. He has repeatedly said he has no plans seek the nomination, though he hasn’t ruled out a bid.

Eva Ritchey, the treasurer for the Draft Gore Committee, said drafts have been successful in the past and pointed to one that persuaded Dwight Eisenhower to run for president in 1952. She said drafts “are a legitimate political mechanism for encouraging an unwilling candidate to enter the race.”

She thinks Gore is enjoying success on his current career path and may be reluctant to change his focus and commit to campaigning. But, she said the nation needs him as president to make policy changes and appoint the right people who can combat global warming.

“If the American public really wants him to run, then they have a responsibility to make that loud and clear,” she said in a telephone interview from Hendersonville, N.C.

The radio ad, being run on WHO-AM in Des Moines, included such pleas as “Mr. Gore we need you for president” and “We deserve a president we can respect.”

“Al Gore: Right on Iraq, right on global warming, right for the 21st century,” the ad says.