Same Notes, Different Styles for Perot, Lamm

Their styles differed dramatically, but their broad themes were basically the same--slash government, balance the budget and do away with politics as usual--as Ross Perot and Richard D. Lamm each made a case Sunday to be the new Reform Party’s 1996 presidential nominee.

Although Lamm received a respectful and at times enthusiastic reception, Perot clearly was the favorite of those who attended the nationally televised speeches at the Long Beach Convention Center. An estimated 2,600 Reform Party members continually roared with approval as Perot, the Texas billionaire who ran as an independent presidential candidate in 1992, delivered one of his patented “just fix it” speeches.

Both Lamm, the former governor of Colorado, and Perot addressed the audience without any hint of the increasing tension that has dogged their relationship in recent weeks. Although Lamm argued it was time to pass the torch of leadership of the party, he began his remarks with an acknowledgment of Perot’s role as its founder and chief financial backer.

Right up until Sunday, Lamm had been suggesting Perot was using his control of the party to make it difficult for him to run an effective campaign.

Perot, who followed Lamm to the podium and spoke about 25 minutes longer, won an early loud cheer from his supporters when he flatly declared: “I want to be your president.”

The comment represented a shift in tone from Perot’s independent campaign for president in 1992, during which he frequently said that he wasn’t running because he wanted to but because the people wanted him to.

In challenging Perot for leadership of the reform movement, Lamm delivered an address that mixed scorn for the two major political parties and the existing system of government with hope for a future America that is marked by optimism, stability, equity and opportunity.

But if Washington fails to solve its massive problems, Lamm said, this generation of Americans is condemning its children “to a second-class nation mired in national debt and bitter political divisiveness.”

Perot spoke in his blunt, Texas-twanged style, delivering a message reminiscent of his stock speeches of 1992 but with updated charts and graphs. At one point, as he waited for a new graph to appear on the screen, Perot said: “OK, more numbers on your instrument panel.”

And as was often the case four years ago, Perot spoke far longer than scheduled, pushing the event at least 15 minutes beyond its scheduled end.

Lamm, in his 25-minute speech, came across as more of the seasoned political figure and academician he is. And he laced his remarks with notes of hope, apparently to overcome his old “Governor Gloom” image as a politician who was always presenting solutions that required stiff sacrifice.

He likened the Reform Party crusade to the challenge of the Patriots fighting the British in the 1770s, when only a third of Americans dared to rebel.

“This is our challenge,” he said, “to rally that passionate third, to inspire and bring together all those who recognize that our country is in trouble, and have the will to rebuild it.”

“What an exciting challenge. What an honor,” he said.

Lamm, 61, who only entered the contest on July 9, also had a solid core of followers in the Terrace Theater, a part of the Convention Center complex. But if the enthusiasm in the hall for the 66-year-old Perot was any sign of how the party’s weeklong national vote for a presidential nominee goes, it would seem that the movement would remain in the hands of its founder.

Lamm has said he would support Perot in that event and work this fall to elect the Reform Party ticket and other candidates supporting its view.

At the end of the three-hour program, party members, estimated at 1.1 million to 1.3 million, could began casting their votes by telephone, mail and on the Internet. And those in the hall, who gained admission by showing their ballots, also could mark them and deposit them in boxes in the theater lobby.

The votes are to be tallied Saturday, and the winner is scheduled to be announced at a Reform Party campaign kickoff at Valley Forge, Pa., next Sunday.

Generally, the mood in the hall was boisterous, festive and good-natured.

Lamm opened his address by noting that the convention would not have been possible without Perot, who launched a crash drive to qualify the Reform Party for state election ballots in September.

“Ross, we salute you,” he said.

But Lamm also made it clear that he and many Reform Party officials supporting him believe it is time for new leadership in the party if the movement is to thrive.

“I personally face an enormous challenge by running against the founder of this party,” he said. “I do so with my eyes open, knowing in my heart that the torch must pass. The Reform Party is larger than any one individual.”

Lamm also said, in an apparent shot at Perot, that if the Reform Party is to succeed, “we must go beyond the rhetoric, slogans and good intentions.”

In fact, Perot offered no detailed solutions to any of the problems he raised. Nor did Lamm, whose speech focused on three major points: campaign and government reform, fiscal “sanity” and immigration reform.

The Perot-Lamm rivalry, though not evident in their speeches, was mirrored in the tension of the crowd as the delegates waited to enter the theater.

Vendors selling Perot and Lamm paraphernalia staked out positions on opposite sides of the fountain in front of the convention center. Near the entryway, a divided throng of delegates engaged in a shouting match shortly before they were admitted, under strict security, beginning at 3 p.m. The program began an hour later.

One Lamm supporter, Bob Mullally of North Hollywood, who sold Lamm T-shirts outside the hall, was among the supporters of the former Colorado governor who believe the future of the party is limited if it is tied too closely to Perot.

“I find Ross Perot to be an embarrassment. . . . The party, with Lamm, has the potential to be a formidable power in politics in the next 10 years.”

During the past month, Lamm 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 of Reform Party leaders to give Lamm a list of party members nationwide.

After Sunday’s speeches, Lamm and his vice presidential running mate, Ed Zschau, a former congressman from the San Jose area, met with reporters. Lamm declined to say whether he thought he had scored the sort of “hard hit” with his speech that he said on Saturday he probably needed to defeat Perot in this week’s balloting.

Perot, who came to Long Beach not long before the convention started, left without meeting with reporters.

In a new element to his message since his 1992 campaign, Perot was able to boast of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

He said a U.S. trade surplus with Mexico had turned into a deficit--$15 billion last year, he claimed--since NAFTA went into effect.

He said NAFTA “was sold to us as a job-creating dynamo for the good old USA, and I was ridiculed for saying it was going to be a giant sucking sound. Do you remember that?”

Lamm was less certain that the agreement was a flop, telling reporters, “I do think on NAFTA the jury is still out.”

During his address, Lamm said there was irony in that “political insiders” are labeling Reform Party members as “foolish . . . quixotic and don’t have a chance.”

“Public regard for the two major political parties has never been lower. They are incapable of being honest with the American public,” he said.

Times staff writers Douglas P. Shuit and Jeff Leeds contributed to this story.