Perot Focuses on ’94 Congressional Races : Politics: He says that lawmakers who ignore the ‘priorities of the American people’ will find reelection tough. He dismisses trouble within grass-roots group.

Members of Congress who ignore “the priorities of the American people” and plan to seek reelection in 1994 were warned by Ross Perot on Wednesday that they will face stiff opposition from his grass-roots organization, United We Stand, America, Inc.

Perot, who has been hustling from one political meeting to another since finishing third in last year’s presidential race, has been organizing by congressional district and drawing huge crowds in a series of weekend rallies.

While he has pointedly not ruled out another run at the presidency in 1996, he said that his group is now “organizing by every congressional district so that we can be in a position to be the swing vote in ‘94, and people who are ignoring the priorities of the American people which are clearly stated and established by polls . . . it’s going to get tough to get reelected in a world where incumbents are used to being reelected.”

Perot bragged that his crowds have been many times larger than town hall rallies staged by Republican members of Congress and said that on one day alone, 70,000 Americans signed up and paid $15 each to join his Dallas-based organization.

Accusing both the GOP and the Democratic Party of trying to “steal” members from his organization, he said: “This is the most pathetic effort since whatever . . . it’s pathetic.”

Perot, interviewed by editors and reporters of The Times Washington Bureau, refused to disclose how much money he’s raised or how many people he has recruited. So far, the Texas billionaire said, he has spent his own money on building up the organization and has banked all membership funds. Eventually, he said, the organization will elect 50 state leaders and then he will meet with them in Dallas, set up a budget and a plan, “and we’ll start spending that money.”

Perot admitted that United We Stand has experienced some unusual problems in its organizing. But he dismissed as erroneous or exaggerated news reports that disillusioned supporters had broken away from the organization and in some cases had accused the Dallas headquarters of heavy-handed or dictatorial conduct.

Bristling at the mention of an NBC-TV report that included six former Perot supporters who criticized his organization, Perot said that everything was going well in building the organization, but “I guess the only news is negative news.”

Asked if Time magazine was wrong in reporting that there are about 100 small splinter groups of Perot defectors, he said: “Yes, putting it mildly.”

Pointing out that an organization of millions of people can’t control all of its members, he said that a few strange people had joined. “We have one guy . . . who was an active member in the Ku Klux Klan,” he said. “Obviously, he could not be in a leadership role, a major leadership role. And in a quiet way . . . people at the state level during the campaign replaced that guy. Now he’s been suing everybody in sight ever since.”

Another member, he said, is a psychic who “every time there’s a meeting, only wants to forecast the future and drives everybody bonkers.” Perot said that while he doesn’t attend the local meetings, members who do would like for the psychic to stay away.

“The psychic is now getting ready to make the TV circuit,” he said. “And all the criticism will be aimed at the organization. The facts are the psychic’s peers in a city far removed from Texas . . . in a very careful, sensitive way for weeks are trying to get the psychic interested in something else.”

On another subject, Perot made it clear that he will continue to be a thorn in President Clinton’s side, although he said he has no interest in running for President. He scoffed at Budget Director Leon E. Panetta’s recent statement that Perot had made a decision to oppose all Clinton policies in order to be a viable presidential candidate in 1996.

He insisted he would like to support Clinton and “see the guy on Mt. Rushmore tomorrow because he’s done such brilliant work.” But he added: “We just can’t sit around here brain dead. We own the country, he doesn’t. We elected him to work for us, not to rule us.”

Perot said Clinton’s still unveiled program to reform health care has lost credibility because of both the secrecy in which it is being drafted and the leaks about the proposal that have suggested the cost might run as high as $100 billion to $150 billion.

He also criticized other Clinton initiatives and said that his organization is gearing up to fight the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the Administration strongly supports.

Commenting on the number of Republicans who already are testing the presidential waters for 1996, Perot said that the GOP has too many people who have a personal agenda and not enough people who are interested in trying to rebuild the party after losing the White House to the Democrats.

“I think if you want to be President,” he said, “then that kind of fights with rebuilding the party. If you just want to rebuild the party in a selfless way, I would love for a person with great leadership abilities to show up to just rebuild the Republican Party.”