Perot Plans to Lay Low During Convention : Politics: He will use the time to develop positions on key issues, try to regain control of his sometimes mutinous volunteers.

Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot plans to lie low in Dallas next week during the Democratic convention to try to develop coherent positions on key issues and to regain control of a campaign apparatus that appears to be spinning out of control.

Campaign manager Tom Luce said Thursday that Perot was planning no public appearances next week so that he could “finalize” several policy papers and deal with organizational problems.

Perot considers improving the economy, creating jobs and restoring American competitiveness to be the cornerstones of his still-undeclared candidacy, but he has yet to spell out how he intends to accomplish these goals. Aides said Perot expects to clarify his positions soon.

As the campaign tries to define what it stands for, it has been rapidly adding staff to handle a deluge of press inquiries and to try to control the turbulent and at times mutinous volunteer Perot committees around the country.

The campaign this week named as press secretary longtime Perot aide Sharon Holman and hired as her deputy Liz Maas, a former press assistant at the White House and on the presidential campaign of Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV in 1988. James Squires, the former Chicago newspaper editor who had served as Perot’s chief spokesman, has become “communications coordinator.”

The campaign has also added more than a dozen new field organizers to try to ride herd on the fractious state Perot committees. The young political professionals have themselves at times been the source of friction between state groups and Dallas headquarters.

Perot, appearing tired and testy on the NBC “Today” program Thursday, said there were “a tiny amount of problems” with the volunteer organizations and attributed the griping to a handful of malcontents. He glossed over the large number of complaints from volunteers in states from Georgia to Colorado that power-hungry state coordinators and inept professionals from Dallas had “hijacked” the campaign from the thousands of volunteers who created the Perot phenomenon.

“Any time we ever have problems like that, I get into them personally. I address them personally. We solve them,” Perot said.

On Tuesday, Perot met in Dallas with the leaders of 48 state organizations, but volunteers in the states complained that Perot was entertaining the self-appointed leaders while neglecting the grass-roots workers.

The Perot office in Palm Desert, Calif., was closed by the Dallas headquarters Tuesday after volunteers took an interest in a splinter group that promotes candidates who would push Perot’s policies, officials said.

The closure was intended to separate Californians for Perot from the so-called Patriot Party, said Nicholas Cromwell, Inland Empire regional coordinator of Californians for Perot.

But at least one volunteer denied involvement with a third party and said she was shocked with the way the campaign handled the matter.

In addition, the campaign has been the subject of numerous rumors about impending defections. This week, for example, it was rumored that senior campaign strategist Hamilton Jordan had become disenchanted with the slow pace and chaos of the Perot effort and would resign shortly.

At a press briefing Thursday--his second in three days but only his third of the entire campaign--Luce said reports of Jordan’s imminent departure were false. “Hamilton is not leaving the campaign,” Luce said. “His work on the campaign is continuing.”

Luce denied that the Perot campaign was in “disarray” but acknowledged that it was “not a smooth-functioning political machine.” He said that misstatements and unreturned phone calls were not part of a deliberate effort to stonewall or deceive the press.

“We have not specialized in disinformation,” Luce said. “We have been confused from time to time.”

He also said that the campaign does not intend to send a “pot-shot crew” to New York to challenge Clinton’s statements or the Democratic platform, as the Bush campaign plans to do. He said the Perot campaign’s philosophy is not to respond to every statement or charge from the opposition, but to try to define Perot on his own terms.

To that end, film crews are shooting Perot’s public appearances, private meetings and testimonials from supporters for use in television advertising. But Luce said there are no completed ads and the campaign has not yet purchased air time.

Perot is also beginning to compile a list of potential running mates, aides said. “We’re doing research--not investigations--on people. Every day names get added and deleted,” Luce said. The search is being run by Jordan and senior aide Morton H. Meyerson.

Luce said Perot would announce his choice sometime in August. He also said that the campaign had filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a Hawaii election law that requires an independ1701737504parties. The Perot campaign wants the right to wait until the end of August to name its vice presidential nominee, Luce said.