Perot, Lamm to Take Reform Party Stage

The once-gentlemanly contest between Ross Perot and Richard D. Lamm for the Reform Party’s presidential nomination begins its final phase in Long Beach today with Lamm increasingly irritated by Perot’s control over party mechanics and concerned about the fairness of the balloting.

“The promises that were made to me early on were not kept,” Lamm said shortly after arriving Saturday in Long Beach, where he and Perot are to address the Reform Party’s first nominating convention at the city’s convention center.

An audience of about 1,500 is expected in the hall for the oratory, scheduled to start shortly after 4 p.m., but Lamm and Perot mostly will aim their remarks to party members watching the event across the country on cable television. Voting for the nominee--by mail, telephone, computer, and fax--is to be allowed until Saturday, with the results announced next Sunday in Valley Forge, Pa., the site of George Washington’s encampment during the bitter winter of 1777-78.

In his comments Saturday, Lamm expressed concern that so much of the voting process was being conducted in secret by Perot employees in Dallas, though the actual vote tabulation was being done by an independent accounting firm.

“I don’t think that anybody would have confidence in an election if the Democratic and Republican parties brought the ballot boxes to the election commission and all they did is count them,” Lamm said.

And just last week, Lamm officials bitterly complained about Perot’s mailing of a postcard to all Reform Party members as a reminder for them to watch today’s three-hour-long convention on C-SPAN or CNN and then to vote.

The postcard carried Perot’s photo and the headline: “A message from Ross Perot.”

Lamm advisor Tom D’Amore called the mailing a “cheap-shot trick,” adding: “The people who signed Reform Party petitions did so to create a true alternative to politics as usual, not a personal fiefdom for Ross Perot.”

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Perot officials said the only intention was to help drum up interest in the convention and the voting, and that the photo was included as a means of drawing attention to the card.

Perot, who founded and provides most of the financing for the fledgling party, remained at his home in Dallas on Saturday. Perot officials said he plans to arrive in Long Beach shortly before his speech and then return to Dallas shortly after the event.

Lamm, 61, acknowledged Saturday that it will take something of a knockout punch today for him to upset the heavily favored Perot, 66, in a party largely composed of people who voted for the Texas billionaire when he ran for president in 1992 as an independent.

Still, Lamm was increasingly buoyant about his prospects for winning the nomination. In spite of the obstacles he believes he has had to deal with, “we really do have a real chance.”

Initially, in the spirit of reform politics, Perot and Lamm agreed not to attack each other personally during the campaign and that they would refrain from traditional electioneering--that Perot would not, as D’Amore put it, “trash us with money.”

But since shortly after Lamm, the former Colorado governor, declared his candidacy about a month ago, he and his aides have complained about Perot’s refusal to debate, about electioneering that Lamm said was inconsistent with the spirit of reform politics, and the refusal to give Lamm a list of the estimated 1.3 million Reform Party members nationwide.

Lamm said Saturday that Perot was cordial during three telephone conversations last week, initiated by Perot to discuss convention arrangements.

“The dilemma is that personally, he’s very friendly and seems like he wants to work things out, but things don’t seem to work out,” Lamm said.

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Lamm’s growing confidence was based in part on a report from his vice presidential running mate, former Rep. Ed Zschau of Los Altos, Calif., who visited party officials in Oregon, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania during the past week.

Zschau, a former Republican, joined Lamm on Saturday and said, “You now have an excellent chance to win the nomination of the Reform Party.

“Contrary to the characterization in the popular press, this is not Ross Perot’s party,” Zschau said.

Even so, Lamm said he needs a strong showing today to be able to collect enough votes to win. But he added that it is difficult to figure who will vote and why.

“There’s not 1.3 million people that are sort of dying to go out there and cast their votes,” he said.