Weicker Shuns Reform Party, Speaks Before Splinter Group

Former Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. of Connecticut said Monday he is not running for the Reform Party’s presidential nomination but is interested in a splinter group, the American Reform Party.

“I am not interested in becoming a member of the Reform Party,” said Weicker, who served in the Senate as a Republican before being elected governor as an independent.

But in an interview on NBC’s “Today,” Weicker used the word “we” in addressing the party’s future.

“We’ve got to present ourselves as a centrist party with centrist candidates covering a wide range of views,” he said.

Weicker addressed a weekend session of the American Reform Party, whose leader, Ted Muga, criticized Republican presidential hopeful Patrick J. Buchanan for his writings about World War II. Muga said that before rejoining the Reform Party, the splinter group needs assurances that Buchanan, who is considering running for the Reform nomination, does not get it.

In another sign of discontent within the Reform Party, Chairman Russell Verney repeated in a “Today” interview that Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura should quit the party.

“The values of the members of the Reform Party are 180 degrees away from those expressed by Gov. Ventura” in a Playboy interview, Verney said. Ventura ridiculed organized religion and overweight people and dismissed the Tailhook scandal--Navy aviators allegedly assaulting women--as much ado about nothing.