Reform Party Mailing Candidate Ballots

The new Reform Party on Monday began mailing presidential nominating ballots to 1.3 million potential party members under procedures that appear to make it difficult for anyone to wrest the party’s November ballot slot away from founder Ross Perot.

Although the Texas billionaire faces a likely challenge from former Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm, who is expected to announce his candidacy today, Lamm may find it hard to surmount the obstacles of money, time and name recognition to supplant Perot on the ticket.

Despite Lamm’s professed hopes that Perot will decide not to run--and Perot’s own repeated statements that he would be happy to see someone else take the lead--the Texan seems clearly headed toward making a run.

Perot has scheduled an appearance Wednesday night on Cable News Network’s “Larry King Live” program, the platform for most of his political pronouncements. Until then, the best evidence of his intentions comes from the ballots themselves, which will go out to party members with only two potential candidates listed--Perot and Lamm.

Party members will be asked to fill in the name of the candidate they prefer--one of those two or someone else--and mail the ballots. They must be received no later than July 20. Anyone named on at least 10% of the ballots received by the deadline will earn the right to be nominated at the party’s convention in Long Beach on Aug. 11.

Party officials concede it is unlikely that anyone other than the two named candidates will meet that threshold. After the nominating speeches on Aug. 11, the potential candidates will then seek the votes of the party membership, who will be polled by telephone, mail and computer for one week. The winner will be announced at a fall campaign kickoff rally on Aug. 18 in Valley Forge, Pa.

The votes for both phases of the nominating process will be tabulated in secret by an “independent authority” and only the winners’ names released, party officials said.

“We are not looking to embarrass anybody in this process,” Russell J. Verney, the party’s national coordinator, told a Dallas news conference Monday. “We are not looking to set somebody up as a clear favorite and somebody else as a dark horse.”

The chief obstacle facing any candidate other than Perot is time.

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While party voters are free to write in whomever they choose on their ballots, there is virtually no time--only a little over one week--for anyone to mount a nationwide campaign to seek those votes in time for the ballots to be received by July 20.

But Verney insisted in an interview that the nominating procedure is designed to enlist a large number of qualified candidates.

“How much time do you need?” Verney asked. “The idea has become so ingrained that a presidential election has to last four years. We were all bored to tears with the primaries by March.”

He denied that the system was set up to ensure Perot received the nomination of the party he created and continues to finance.

“The process is open and fair,” Verney said. “If someone has a favorite candidate, they can start a draft movement, and they’ll get a lot of media attention.”

Many Reform Party organizers in the field, however, expect Perot to be a shoo-in for the nomination.

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“A lot of the people who signed petitions [to put the party on the ballot] would like to see Mr. Perot run,” said Pat Muth, Reform Party coordinator in Florida. “I have no doubt about Perot [meeting the 10% nominating threshold]. I have no idea about any of the other people, but there is no groundswell for anybody else.”

But some Reform Party officials caution that Perot’s intentions are hard to divine, and they take him at his word that he’d like to see a fresh face carry the banner of the new party.

“I wouldn’t necessarily assume it’s a foregone conclusion that Ross Perot will get the nomination,” said Mike Farris of Sherman Oaks, California coordinator for the Reform Party. “Everybody’s going to get to hear what the candidates have to say, and everybody gets a chance to vote on Aug. 11.”

Farris added: “I don’t think that Ross is necessarily looking for us to pay him back for what he’s done by nominating him. I think he wants us to build this party and be true to reform.”

A second major problem facing any Reform Party nominee other than Perot is money. If he represents the party in the fall campaign, he is eligible for $31 million in federal election funds because of his 19% showing in the 1992 campaign. He could also spend unlimited amounts of his own funds on his behalf.

The federal election commission has not decided whether any other Reform Party candidate would be entitled to the public money.

Unless the FEC decides to release the money, any other candidate would be forced to try to raise money from small donations; Perot could only contribute $20,000 to the party, and Reform funds could only be used for generic activities.