Dark Days for the Reform Party

The election of Jesse Ventura as governor of Minnesota in 1998 appeared to boost the Reform Party as an enduring force in American electoral politics. But Ventura, fed up with intraparty turmoil, has now left the organization. Nor is developer Donald Trump interested in running as the Reform candidate for president.

Unless party founder Ross Perot reemerges, the Reformers are left with the prospect of former Republican Patrick J. Buchanan, an ultra-rightist, carrying the party’s banner into the 2000 contest with leftist activist Lenora Fulani as his running mate. That odd combination is a sign of just how dysfunctional the Reform Party has become. Who knows what a Buchanan-Fulani ticket would stand for?

Ventura decided early on that he would not seek the party’s presidential nomination, though he obviously was interested in making the Reform Party a bigger force. When the party split between his libertarian followers and Perot loyalists, Ventura announced he was leaving the Reformers and might start a new party. Then, at a raucous meeting in Nashville, Perot allies ousted Ventura’s handpicked party chairman, leaving the party a shambles.

Perot, the quirky and quixotic Dallas businessman, personally founded and financed the Reform Party after his 19% showing as an independent candidate for president in 1992. His vote dropped to 8.4% in 1996, but that was good enough to qualify the party for $12.5 million in federal campaign funds this year; that money threatens to become the party’s only reason to exist.

Ventura came along just as many Reform Party members agreed they could not become a lasting force as long as they were so closely identified with Perot. One of Perot’s most appealing issues--federal budget reform--evaporated as the strong economy helped wipe out annual budget deficits. And the Texan’s efforts to drum up anger over free trade fizzled.

This has been a familiar pattern in third-party movements. Insurgents rally behind a popular leader, like Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, and push an appealing reform agenda. Then the central issue fades or is co-opted by the major parties. And often the once-popular reform leader, like Perot in 1992 or George Wallace after his 1968 loss, becomes viewed as a cranky agitator out of step with the times. The latest casualty in California is the Peace and Freedom Party, formed in protest to the Vietnam War. It was decertified after the last election because of lack of votes. Third parties often are born with great hopes of becoming the mainstream of politics, only to stagnate on the fringes.

Ross Perot might reappear in hopes of leading the Reform Party in 2000, but the party’s future, grim now, will remain so.