Lamm Plans to Seek Reform Party Nomination, Close Advisor Says

Former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm will almost certainly announce in coming days that he will run for president as a candidate in Ross Perot’s Reform Party, a close advisor said Wednesday.

Mark Sturdevant, a confidant of Lamm’s and vice chairman of the Reform Party of California, said that after discussions with Lamm, he was “95% certain [Lamm] is going to do this. Something could change, but I doubt that it will.”

Lamm, the liberal Democratic governor of Colorado from 1975 to 1987, has not publicly announced he will seek the party’s nomination, although he is often mentioned as a leading contender.

Sturdevant, who lives in La Habra, said Lamm will declare his intentions at a news conference in Denver on Tuesday.

In a meeting last week with about 10 advisors, including Sturdevant, Lamm and the group made “final preparations” for the announcement of the candidacy, Sturdevant said.

A major concern had been whether Lamm, in seeking the nomination, might find himself competing with Perot to run under the party’s banner in the November elections, Sturdevant said.

But in the end, Sturdevant said Lamm and his advisors decided “he needs to be willing to run against Ross Perot in his own party. He needs [to show] that kind of determination” in order to make a serious bid.

If a race does develop between the two for the Reform Party nomination, and Lamm wins, Sturdevant said he was “certain that Ross Perot will support [Lamm] and do whatever he can to help him get elected.”

Perot has not indicated how he would respond to a decision by Lamm to seek the nomination. Party officials in Texas have said Perot has been neutral to the idea.

The party’s two-step nominating process begins in Long Beach on Aug. 11 with speeches and a first-stage selection process, followed by electronic and mail voting by all Reform Party members. The winner is expected to accept the nomination on Aug. 18 in Valley Forge, Pa.