Diverse Battle for Reform Party Soul

As the megarich, the ultra-famous, the extreme left and extreme right hover around the Reform Party and its $12.6 million in federal matching funds, the nation’s most promising third party appears to be struggling with a crisis of identity.

The 7-year-old reform movement has welcomed just about anyone who shared its view that the political system needs fixing. But now, the cast of characters associated with the party is so ideologically diverse, so socially divided, so famous, that observers say it may diffuse any nascent populist support.

“Many of those drawn to the Reform Party have been those who could not ascend in the Republican and Democratic parties, so you get a lot of weak egomaniacs, self-promoters and celebrities,” said James Squires, the former editor of the Chicago Tribune and a chief advisor to Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot when he ran for president and founded the reform movement in 1992. “Real candidates aren’t interested because the party has no real leadership. I’m a member of the Reform Party. But I’m a little disappointed and saddened by this turn.”

The party’s current figurehead, ex-wrestler-turned-Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, likes billionaire developer Donald Trump for president, who in turn likes Oprah Winfrey as a possible running mate.

But that ticket is lined up against Perot, who wants GOP agitator extraordinaire Patrick J. Buchanan, who, in turn, may be interested in America’s best-known union man, Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, for his would-be vice president.

Some California members also hope to draft liberal actor Warren Beatty. Others like actress Cybill Shepherd.

The party, it seems, is growing less and less interested in a reformer with credentials but no fame. And that is fine with former Connecticut Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., an independent who days ago looked like a possible candidate for the Reform nomination but now says he probably won’t run.

“It’s one thing to get beaten--that’s not bad,” he said. “It’s another to become a joke.”

The Reform Party, founded in 1995, grew out of United We Stand America, a grass-roots organization created in 1992 to draft Perot to run for the presidency. But not since the heady early-summer days of that year has the movement been on the brink of such promise.

Although it doesn’t have the slumping economy of 1992 to rally a protest vote, the party can still point to a high level of voter frustration with partisan battles in Congress. It is also eligible to receive $12.6 million in federal matching funds based on Perot’s performance as a candidate in the 1996 presidential race. Now the party enjoys the kind of power only money can buy, enough to influence the debate and perhaps even the outcome in the 2000 presidential election.

To top it off, Reform can claim in Ventura perhaps the best-known politician in the land after President Clinton, a one-man recruiting machine with anytime-access to prime-time television.

Critics say the movement is still a minor-league player.

“The party cannot now be taken seriously,” said conservative TV commentator Bruce Herschensohn, who worked with Buchanan in the Nixon White House. “Absolutely everyone is welcome, and I think that is a great weakness. It shows only anger.”

But Reformers contend the party’s single greatest strength is its ideological diversity. There is no reason, they argue, that people who disagree on social issues such as abortion cannot agree on a plan to reduce the trade deficit, for example, or tighten campaign finance laws.

“People think that because we don’t deal with social issues we’ve lost focus,” said Shar Johnson, the party’s national vice-secretary. “That’s not true. We don’t want to deal with those issues. We want to deal only with issues that give us a stable, financially secure country.”

Johnson said the famous and ideologically diverse lineup of candidates does not distract from the party’s agenda. “We allow anyone to come in to take a look at us--and then we make the decision about them,” she said.

Indeed, despite its populist rhetoric and the insistence of its leaders that the party’s power lies with the people, the Reform Party has always been something of a cult of personality.

Millions of people went to work in 1992 to try to elect Perot, who promised in his nasally North Texas twang to fix the whole kit and kaboodle with hard work and honesty, and to save the taxpayers a bundle in the process.

Despite dropping out of the race briefly, and along the way garnering a reputation as a mercurial, conspiracy-obsessed eccentric, Perot garnered 19% of the vote. Over the next several years his support diminished and in the 1996 presidential race Perot took 9%.

Today, the Reform Party has qualified for the ballot in 21 states. And a primary mission for the party’s next nominee will be to extend that access to ballots in the other 29 states and the District of Columbia.

Reform Party delegates are expected to gather at a national convention next spring to select their nominee--but they have not yet chosen a time and place for the meeting.

The Reform Party was giddily thrust back into the national spotlight last year when Ventura ran on the party’s ticket and won an upset victory in Minnesota’s gubernatorial election.

But now, Ventura’s gruff, grammatically challenged charm may be wearing thin, some analysts say. His popularity rating in Minnesota plunged 19 points, according to one poll, after he derided organized religion, downplayed the infamous Tailhook scandal and said that he wanted to be reincarnated as a very large bra--all in a Playboy interview.

Outgoing Reform Party Chairman Russell Verney--a Perot ally who is due to be succeeded by Ventura ally Jack Gargan--called for Ventura’s resignation from the party, reigniting a fight that has caused some members to break off a splinter group known as the American Reform Party.

As the celebrities of Reform--none of whom, except Ventura, is a party member--take to the airwaves in the coming weeks, it may be important to note, some analysts say, that they are receiving media attention because of who they are--not necessarily because they have the support of a viable party.

“The prospects for the Reform Party are greatly exaggerated,” said Steven E. Schier, a political science professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. “Strength comes from unity, and the Reform Party is the very definition of disunity.

“Besides,” Schier added, “the whole Reform Party of Minnesota can still meet in a phone booth, and Minnesota is Reform country.”

Indeed, no one knows how many members there are nationwide. Counting Ventura, the party has elected six officeholders. There’s the mayor of Watertown, N.Y.; a county supervisor in Virginia; a school board member and a township supervisor in Pennsylvania, and a City Council member in South Carolina.

Even so, “we’re getting a whole lot of attention,” said Lenora Fulani, a Reform founder and two-time Independent presidential candidate. “And all the big shots who come around are welcome.”