Ex-Gov. Lamm Is Open to Nod From Reform Party

For the first time, former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm said Saturday that “under the right circumstances” he would seek the presidential nomination of Ross Perot’s Reform Party.

Speaking to reporters at a California Reform Party convention, Lamm said he would be open to seeking the nomination if the party demonstrates it can mount a viable national campaign for a candidate other than Perot.

“I’d love to run a teach-in presidential campaign,” said Lamm, an iconoclastic Democrat who served three terms as Colorado’s governor. “But to run for president, it’s like invading Normandy on D-Day: It takes logistics and troops and finances. It’s just not something you do casually.”

Speeches from Lamm and Perot highlighted the first state Reform Party gathering, which drew about 1,000 activists to the Los Angeles Convention Center. Perot’s address, which mostly reprised his indictment against the two major political parties, was marked by a sharp denunciation of Mexico, which he accused of failing to stem the flow of narcotics into the United States.

“The largest growth industry in Mexico today . . . is selling illegal drugs to us,” Perot charged. “It is chemical warfare conducted against our children, and it must be stopped.”

Lamm said he remains “skeptical” that the Reform Party can meet the conditions he would need to run. But he made it clear that he is intrigued by the potential to shape the presidential debate and to participate in building a new party.

“If the planets came into alignment, I think it would be wonderful [to run] because the two political parties have left themselves vulnerable,” Lamm said.

Lamm’s comments made him the first national politician to publicly express interest in seeking the mantle of the new party, and encouraged activists in the group already urging him to run. The first faint trappings of a “draft Lamm” effort were visible Saturday: a “Friends of Gov. Lamm” committee distributed a collection of his writings and set out a sign-up sheet for volunteers.

“There are some major obstacles he has to go over and have answered,” said Mark Sturdevant, a Los Angeles businessman who is vice chairman of the California Reform Party. “But I think if all things line up, he will be a presidential candidate.”

Perot has said several times he would prefer that the party find a candidate other than himself. But the Texas billionaire has also pointedly refused to rule out running, and many observers doubt that the party could fund a campaign if he was not the candidate. Under federal campaign-financing rules, Perot can only spend unlimited amounts of his own money on the campaign if he is on the party’s ticket.

After the convention, Perot met with Lamm for half an hour. Lamm said Perot “didn’t encourage . . . or discourage” him from pursuing the nomination.

In their speeches, Perot and Lamm hit several common notes, particularly in insisting that the next president take dramatic steps to balance the federal budget and control the growth in entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

But in a rambling hourlong address, Perot gave few specifics on how he would achieve those goals. Much of his speech interspersed folksy denunciations of politicians with brief pitches for a lengthy catalog of populist reforms--from new limitations on lobbying and political contributions to a balanced-budget constitutional amendment and a proposal for nationwide referendums on all future tax increases.

Lamm struck a more astringent and sober tone, calling for “agonizing decisions” to control the potentially explosive increase in entitlement costs once the baby boomers begin to retire early in the next century.

Lamm called for reductions in annual cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security and other programs, accelerating an increase in the retirement age that qualifies for those benefits and allowing younger workers to direct some of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts. If injected into a presidential campaign, all of those ideas could prove enormously controversial.

Other than Perot, Lamm is the only other name who has drawn any measurable interest from activists in the Reform Party, which will choose its nominee at a national convention now likely to be held in August.

Lamm, who served as Colorado’s governor from 1974 through 1986, cuts an eclectic political figure. An ardent environmentalist, he takes combative positions not only on reducing entitlements but also on an array of other issues, from legal reform to immigration.

Drawing some of his loudest applause, Lamm said Saturday that large-scale immigration both depresses wages for the poor by importing low-cost labor and threatens unsustainable growth in America’s population. Referring to the poet who wrote the poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Lamm said: “Emma Lazarus was wrong: You can’t take all the world’s huddled masses.”

Lamm said two keys to his decision on whether to run would be proof that the party can raise the funds to support a respectable campaign without access to Perot’s money and a clear indication from Perot that he will not seek the nomination himself.

In their meeting, Perot indicated that he could not unequivocally declare his intentions while volunteers were still laboring to secure ballot access for the party in the 50 states, Lamm said. So far, the party has qualified for a place on 12 state ballots, including California; it has applications pending in six other states and ballot drives underway in all the remaining states, said Russell J. Verney, national coordinator for the Reform Party.

Lamm said he would be more interested in seeking the Reform Party nomination if the Federal Election Commission grants the party’s request for about $32 million in public financing, based on Perot’s 19% showing in the 1992 presidential contest. Last week, the FEC staff ruled that Perot would be eligible for the money but left open the question of whether another candidate running under the Reform Party banner could receive the money. Verney said he expected a final ruling from the full commission soon.

Even if the money is available, Lamm indicated, he retains some doubts about pursuing the nomination. He said he worries that the national press would not “pay attention” to a Reform Party candidate other than Perot; he also said his wife in particular was concerned that he might siphon sufficient votes from President Clinton to tilt the election to Republican candidate Bob Dole.