Fractured Reform Party Sees Trade Issue as Its Salvation

They would like you to think of balanced budgets.

They would like you to think of campaign finance reform.

They would hope you’d recall their passionate vows to limit immigration, scuttle free-trade pacts, protect American jobs.

But even the Reform Party’s most senior officials admit--with sorrow and also chagrin--that such issues no longer define their movement. Think of the Reform Party now and you’re likely to conjure images of bickering and bashing, of ex-wrestlers and casino moguls, of a mishmash ideology that suits everyone and no one. Of, above all, irrelevance.

“Let’s face it,” says Jack Gargan, a party leader, “the public thinks we’re a screwed-up bunch.”

From this dismal assessment comes--ironically--hope. Reform Party loyalists at all levels say they’re convinced the party--after a shout-fest meeting last weekend--has hit the lowest low and will now turn itself around. Pundits have written them off. But Reform’s true believers are sure their party can once again be a player.

Their trump card, they believe, is trade. Let social issues tie the other candidates in knots. The Reform Party will set a new agenda by addressing what they say is the public’s fear of the global economy.

That, at least, is the plan.

The Reform Party’s platform rings with calls for protecting U.S. jobs. The party would label every import, including food, and urge consumers to buy American. It would seek to restrain U.S. firms from moving manufacturing overseas. It would withdraw from the World Trade Organization and restrict importing of low-priced goods to keep foreigners from dominating U.S. markets.

Those stances give Reformers “a key distinction from the other two parties,” said Tim Barnhart, a Missouri activist. “It’s the key to revitalizing the party.”

But before Reformers can revitalize, they first have to figure out who’s running the show. And that’s no easy task.

Consider: Gargan, a breezy and blunt Florida businessman, insists he’s the rightful Reform Party chairman because he was elected to the post last year. At a wild meeting in Nashville, however, party delegates ousted Gargan and replaced him with economist Pat Choate, who ran for vice president on the Reform Party ticket in 1996.

Gargan says his removal was illegal.

Choate says Gargan is out, fair and square.

Both now call themselves party chairman.

And that’s just for starters.

Not only does the party have two would-be leaders, it also has two national conventions in the works, one in St. Paul, Minn., and a rival in Long Beach. The party platform talks soberly of ethics and integrity, but top party officials taunt one another with sandbox jeers: “Yahoo!” “Rascal!” “Pirate!”

To top it all off, Reform’s most famous, flamboyant star, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, quit the party in disgust last week, calling it “hopelessly dysfunctional.” Donald Trump then announced he would not seek the party’s presidential nomination because its members are engaged in “general fratricide.”

Choate, his voice scratchy as he battled a cold, summed up the chaos with one weary groan: Voters, he said, think of the Reform Party as “a circus.”

So can it possibly have a future?

Outside experts say no.

Third-party movements, they explain, tend to revolve around a single, stir-the-masses leader. When the charisma fades, the party disintegrates. Stephen J. Wayne, a government professor at Georgetown University, argues that the Reform Party is now suffering that inevitable collapse. “There’s nothing really that holds the party together,” he said.

Analysts also point out that the Reform Party’s signature issues have lost their urgent appeal.

Ross Perot took 19% of the vote in the 1992 presidential race by wooing voters concerned about the budget deficit, frightened of losing jobs overseas and eager to reform campaign finance.

This time around, there’s a budget surplus--and an economy so strong that fast-food joints are paying signing bonuses to attract workers. Campaign reform remains a hot issue, but candidates from both major parties are addressing it.

As for trade, voters may well be uneasy with the interlocked global economy. But in a prosperous year, railing against the new world order is “a pie-in-the-sky issue,” Wayne said, and is unlikely to generate much passion.

In fact, so sure is Wayne of the Reform Party’s demise that he opens an interview on the party’s fate with this bemused sally: “Are you writing an article on funerals?”

Reformers respond with indignation.

The chaos of the past months “has been both embarrassing and disappointing,” said Shar Johnson, a party secretary in Michigan, “but I still completely and fully support the principles of the Reform Party.”

Johnson and other loyalists also credit the Reform Party with pushing campaign finance and fiscal restraint onto the national agenda.

Democrats and Republicans have co-opted those themes. But Reformers insist their party alone has the guts--and the independence--to enact meaningful change. Throw in the party’s stance on trade and Reformers feel sure they’ll win plenty of converts--just as soon as their leaders cease squabbling and start crusading.

“There is still time for the true message of the Reform Party to get out there,” said North Dakota activist Daniel Rugroden. He summed up that message with an old campaign slogan that he believes resonates with voters: “We want to put America first.”

Which leads us to Patrick J. Buchanan.

Although some party members have spoken of drafting Perot for a third run at the presidency, conservative commentator Buchanan has emerged as Reform’s most likely nominee. Choate’s wing of the party supports him. And Buchanan’s most vocal foe, Ventura, has removed himself from the debate by quitting the party.

Analysts warn that a Buchanan candidacy would doom the Reform Party to permanent sideshow status.

“Pat Buchanan is known--and not liked--by the public,” said Steven Schier, chairman of the political science department at Carleton College in Minnesota. “You’re not going to get people to take a second look [at the Reform Party] if you’re selling used and unfashionable merchandise.”

Yet Reformers hold out hope that by focusing on economic issues, Buchanan could draw in new supporters, even voters who may have rejected him in the past because of his conservative social views.

If he concentrates on themes like abortion and gay rights, even Buchanan’s backers concede he would do little more than pull votes from the Republican nominee. But if he builds a campaign around trade, they believe he could reenergize the Reform Party.

Whichever route he takes--and he’s refusing all interviews--Buchanan will have $12.6 million in federal funds to get his message out. (The Reform Party qualified for the money by drawing more than 5% in the last presidential election.)

Those millions guarantee the Reform Party will be able to make some noise this election season.

And that may be enough to keep it alive.

“Sometimes it’s not about winning office,” Gerry Moan, a party leader, said. “If you have a strong enough voice to change the dialogue, you’ve won in the end. Maybe that’s our niche in history: to influence the dialogue.”