Perot’s Forces in Optimistic Mood : Politics: The Lawndale office alone has collected one-third of the signatures needed to put the businessman on the state’s presidential ballot.

From the well-stocked information desk in front to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich fixings in back, it’s all business at the Ross Perot petition campaign’s Lawndale office.

As campaign headquarters for southern Los Angeles County, the office since April has sent volunteers streaming to South Bay homes, malls, art fairs and elsewhere to help collect the 134,781 voter signatures that Perot needs to qualify for California’s presidential ballot.

That effort hit a high point June 18 when the Texas billionaire appeared in Sacramento and Irvine to celebrate a statewide petition drive that, according to some estimates, has netted a staggering 1 million signatures.

The Irvine event, organized for Perot’s Southern California volunteers, drew thousands--among them more than 100 South Bay residents who planned to make the trip by car or chartered bus.

“This is the first opportunity for our volunteers to get a look at a man they’ve given their lives over to,” says Manhattan Beach real estate agent Nancy Morgan, the petition campaign’s coordinator for southern Los Angeles County. “This guy has almost achieved cult status.”

Perot’s arrival caps an indisputable success in grass-roots organizing, but it also marks the start of a difficult stage in the would-be independent candidate’s emerging quest for the Oval Office.

Perot, who has yet to formally announce he is running, must now turn from signature-gathering to full-blown campaigning. That means defining his still-vague platform and facing a surge in critical press coverage--all without losing his no-nonsense, outsider appeal.

“There’s no doubt that Perot has tapped the public’s desire for change,” said Leroy Hardy, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach. “But can he keep it going? That’s the big question. There’s a long time between now and November.”

The petition drive’s crisply organized headquarters in Lawndale gives an indication how Perot has come as far as he has. The sign-bedecked storefront office is staffed seven days a week by volunteers--usually a dozen per shift--who are in most cases new to politics but uniformly enthusiastic.

They have engineered a well-oiled petition drive. Organizers estimate that South Bay volunteers numbering in the hundreds have collected more than 55,000 signatures--more than a third of the amount needed to put Perot on the ballot.

The workers reflect a range of political backgrounds but share a belief that neither President Bush nor Democratic rival Bill Clinton possesses the independence and temperament needed to confront the country’s problems.

Tracy Kelly of Redondo Beach, a 26-year-old trucking company manager, walked into the Lawndale office recently to offer her services. For Kelly, who is married and has a 2-year-old son, it’s a question of shaking up the political establishment to make government more effective.

“If you had talked to me a few years ago about working on a political campaign, I would’ve said, ‘Uh, uh. No way,’ ” she said. “But here I am signing a petition and volunteering my time. I’m shocked at myself. . . . I guess I’m just so overwhelmed by the lack of competency in government that I do not want my child to have to deal with it.”

The Lawndale office is one of two headquarters in Los Angeles County for which Perot himself pays rent and telephone bills. The other--the north county headquarters--is in Sherman Oaks. Remaining expenses are covered by contributions, say campaign officials, who declined to provide figures.

On entering the office, visitors encounter two television sets running taped interviews featuring the Dallas businessman and a table laden with petitions, voter registration forms and written information about Perot. Those who sign are led to a second row of tables where they are given campaign T-shirts, buttons and key chains--and asked to make a donation.

Sometimes visitors’ wallets and purses open surprisingly wide. Chuck Bowman, an outdoor sign maker from Hermosa Beach who is manager of the Lawndale office, said that about “three times a week I sell a T-shirt for $100.”

Pass through a door into a Quonset hut at the back of the building and volunteers staffing donated computers are typing in the names and addresses of all those who signed petitions. The records will serve as a useful pool of voters for Perot’s presidential campaign to woo once the race begins in earnest.

Many of the petition campaign workers interviewed on a recent afternoon said they had never before been directly involved in a political campaign.

“Kennedy was the last time I really got excited about a presidential candidate,” said Tom Cleaver, a 56-year-old Torrance retiree, as he checked completed petitions. “This time I just feel like the country is in dire shape, and the Republicans and Democrats are doing nothing.”

Perot volunteers say they remain dedicated to their man despite a lack of detailed information on how he would deal with key problems, such as the voracious federal budget deficit and runaway health care costs.

They seem simply to trust Perot and believe that, unlike Bush or Clinton, he has the single-mindedness needed to tackle the country’s problems head-on, unswayed by special interests.

The Texan’s volunteers also claim to be unfazed by recent press sorties into Perot’s past that have raised questions about his reputation as a political outsider and an entrepreneurial genius.

Recent examples include stories on his efforts to get himself out of the Navy early in the 1950s with political help from his father, his repeated attempts to become involved in federal government affairs and the importance of government contracts in his business career.

Many volunteers consider the reports inevitable potshots that have not shaken their faith in Perot.

“All these stories, it just makes me laugh,” said Dolores Pitts, 49, a Manhattan Beach homemaker who coordinates the volunteer work schedules at the Lawndale office. She said she knows enough about Perot. “I trust his judgment.”

Despite such signs of loyalty among volunteers, it remains unclear how durable Perot’s support will prove among members of the general public as November approaches.

Some of Perot’s middle-level organizers express concern that preserving his grass-roots momentum might be tough if he does not announce his candidacy soon. Perot, who supporters say has qualified for the presidential ballot in 21 states, has promised to become a candidate after he has qualified in all 50 states.

But now there is talk that he might announce earlier, and his local supporters say they hope it is true.

“I wish he’d hurry up,” Morgan said.