Perot Plans Private Session on Strategy

Undeclared candidate Ross Perot has scheduled a private strategy session with volunteers from across the country and experts interested in his presidential campaign, aides said Monday.

The meeting today will help lead to a national advisory committee for the campaign, said spokesman James Squires.

“It’s private meetings with various people from around the country,” Squires said. “It’s a combination of things, not just one thing.”

The group will offer Perot ideas on major issues as he prepares to begin outlining his presidential platform. Perot has also been soliciting opinions on other topics: potential running mates, sites and timing for a political convention or conventions, and even when to formally declare himself an independent candidate.

Perot has held numerous private meetings over the last month with diverse groups, including big-city mayors, minority coalitions in Los Angeles and gay rights leaders.

He has yet to formally begin laying out his positions, however.

“It’s just a matter of starting the campaign on your timing and not someone else’s,” Squires said.

Perot probably will have no public appearances until the end of this week as he and his aides concentrate on planning and “nuts-and-bolts campaign work,” campaign officials said.

Perot has been invited to speak at an NAACP convention in Nashville on Saturday, but he has not decided whether he will attend, aides said.