Perot’s O.C. Supporters: ‘We Will Not Give Up’ : Politics: Although local volunteers aren’t quite sure how, they are adamant that they will continue to work for political change.

A day after Ross Perot abruptly canceled his undeclared bid for President, leaders of his large corps of devoted volunteers in California and other states headed for Dallas on Friday in a quixotic attempt to talk him back into the race.

Dazed but not daunted by Perot’s announcement, several state coordinators went on a binge of overnight “networking.” By morning, they were talking of plans for candlelight vigils and caravans to the Dallas campaign headquarters.

In Orange County, 20 core volunteers met behind closed doors for an hour Friday afternoon, emerging to announce simply, “We will not give up.”

No decisions about the future of Perot’s Orange County headquarters will come until next week, according to local campaign manager Merrick Okamoto. “I don’t know,” was the only answer that media coordinator Joanne Laufer of Newport Beach could give about whether the group would endorse another candidate, push to write in Perot or formally disband.

Although they were unsure how, volunteers were adamant that they will continue to work for political change.

“Whether Mr. Perot stayed in the race or dropped out of the race, those problems are still out there,” said Marcy Ferren of Fountain Valley. “Just because we’ve lost Mr. Perot doesn’t mean we’ve lost our goals.”

“We’re still voters,” said Ferren, who has worked about 50 hours a week since April as office manager of the Perot office in Irvine, the largest Perot organization in Southern California with about 8,000 volunteers. “We only lost one voter yesterday--Mr. Perot.”

Phone calls continued to pour in Friday, with most people asking, “What do we do next?” Ferren said. She added that sales of Perot paraphernalia, including buttons, bumper stickers, T-shirts, license plate frames and cardboard signs, were also steady throughout the day.

Office co-manager Toni Skillman said part of the morning was also spent returning borrowed items, such as vacuum cleaners and tables, in preparation for the “inevitable” shutdown of the office. Still, Ferren insisted that the office would be open as usual next week, noting that the lease lasts through the end of the month.

“We’ve got a very, very strong, powerful voting block,” Ferren said after the meeting in which volunteers discussed legal options and strategies for continuing as an organization. “We intend to keep that block together as best we can. We’re just working on how we can get up and (become) re-established.”

At 5 p.m., Ferren closed the office early when she and other volunteers headed home to watch Perot on CNN’s “Larry King Live” and ABC’s newsmagazine, “20/20.” As she left, Ferren posted a letter in the office window, next to a hand-scrawled sign declaring, “We’ve lost our choice, but not our voice.”

“We in Orange County, California, will not give up!” read the handwritten letter, which asked volunteers to leave addresses and phone and fax numbers at the office for future contacts. “We are asking all you to do the same.”

Elsewhere, angry words and hurt feelings still surfaced, and some offices were quickly shutting down, but many outposts reported busy-as-ever phone lines and a renewed enthusiasm for the Texas billionaire’s fuzzy but still alluring message.

“They may have killed the messenger, but they can’t kill us,” said Boulder, Colo., organizer Lynn Standerwick. “We just formed a search committee to find a candidate” to run against Rep. David K. Skaggs (D-Colo.), she said. “Our big issues will be the deficit and campaign reform. We’re very enthusiastic.”

Skaggs, perhaps the first incumbent member of Congress to be so targeted by the nascent movement, could not be reached for comment.

Not all Perot supporters were so upbeat in the wake of the Texas billionaire’s announcement that he had decided he would not run.

“It was like a wake (Friday) morning,” said Virginia regional coordinator Tom Overocker from the Falls Church, Va., office outside Washington.

Perot did, however, encourage his supporters to keep their petition drives alive to ensure that politicians don’t forget their concerns. And in Illinois and New York, volunteers decided to continue their petition efforts--but many of them quickly added that they don’t intend to vote for Perot in November.

“I think we have more than enough (signatures) to get him on the ballot,” said Renae Kilian, who was just hired Monday to be Perot’s campaign director for Illinois. “But I would think after that, we won’t have a lot of unified activities. We’ve got a lease for a couple more weeks, and then we will get on with our lives.”

Perot workers in Massachusetts were preparing to shut down their offices, said Phil Rierdan, media coordinator for the state campaign.

“My expectation is that it will die. You need a leader, and there is none available. And you need money, and there certainly isn’t any of that available,” Rierdan said.

And in Aspen, Colo., 54-year-old Ray DiVega, an illustrator and Perot volunteer, groused: “Ross is a big weeny. I’m taking my furniture back from the (volunteers’) office.”

In California, rank-and-file Perot loyalists kept campaign offices open as souvenir hunters snapped up Perot paraphernalia. “People are coming in wanting anything--newsletters, faxes, anything--as souvenirs,” said Ivan Sharpe, a spokesman for Perot’s San Francisco office.

Elsewhere in the state, volunteers struggled to overcome feelings of anger and betrayal. “The immediate reaction was, half of the people wanted to draft Perot and half wanted to hang Perot,” said Jack Brodbeck, spokesman for Perot’s California organization. “But now it kind of comes to the point of, well, what do we do now?”

Some volunteers came up with their own answer--head for Dallas and lobby for Perot’s re-entry into the race. California Perot Chairman Bob Hayden, a Ventura engineer, and Charles Turpin, volunteer coordinator in Oklahoma City, were among those who planned to do so.

“We started networking (Thursday) night about our caravan to Dallas,” Turpin said. “Last time I checked, we had 22 states coming with us. We’re sending 200 volunteers down (today). . . . We want to tell Perot the problems are not insurmountable.”

And in Phoenix, the state headquarters for Perot, the mood was anything but glum. Phones were ringing, supporters were streaming in the door and workers were doling out T-shirts, buttons, hats and signs.

Volunteers were high-fiving and embracing as they learned that others around the country were not going to give up the cause.

Fred Travers, 67, a first-time volunteer, nearly shouted to one caller: “You betcha, we’re going to stay with it. We’re going to get him back on the track.”

But others called that a political pipe dream. “If you think about it, if he did decide to come back into the race, he . . . wouldn’t really be a very viable candidate,” said a Perot leader in San Diego who asked not to be identified.

And Perot spokeswoman Sharon Holman said in Dallas that the campaign was at an end. “It’s all over, as far as we’re concerned,” she said.

In the chaotic Perot office in Manhattan, there was talk--albeit loose talk--of forming a party.

“We have lawyers in Albany working on it,” said Carl Holder, who heads up Perot operations for the greater New York City area.

But the former chairman of the New York City Perot campaign, Matthew Lifflander, endorsed Democrat Bill Clinton Friday--as did at least two other former Perot volunteers.

Some Perot supporters, however, were offended at attempts to recruit them by representatives of Clinton and President Bush.

“I think it’s in poor taste for the Democrats and Republicans to hover over us like vultures,” said Rick Pamplin, a screenwriter and Perot adherent from Palmdale, Calif., who is running for Congress as an independent.

A related question is what will become of computerized lists of Perot partisans across the country--a political prize that could be of great value to the major political parties. In California alone, between 30,000 and 50,000 people actively worked for him.

Times staff writer Jody Wilgoren in Orange County, Jim Risen in Chicago and correspondents Laura Laughlin in Phoenix, Florence Williams in Aspen, John Laidler in Boston, Rhonda Hillbery in Minneapolis and David Hulen in Anchorage contributed to this story.