REFORMING THE REFORM PARTY

	July 26, 1999
	Correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reports on the Reform Party, it’s convention and divisions among its members.

JIM LEHRER: The changing face of the Reform Party: Betty Ann Bowser reports. BETTY ANN BOWSER: As the more than 350 Reform Party delegates arrived in Dearborn, Michigan, they were anticipating a showdown between the party's past and what some say is its future, and most delegates were excited with the prospect of seeing the man of the hour. SPOKESPERSON: It is my pleasure to introduce the first but not last elected Reform Party statewide candidate, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And Ventura did address the convention, but not in person. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: This is a great opportunity for the Reform Party. Voters are very suspicious of the two major parties. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Bad weather grounded Ventura's plane, so he had to talk to delegates via speaker phone. All they could see was a larger-than-life photograph that dominated the stage. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: If we unite and work together, we can elect the next President of the United States; we truly can do it if we believe. Abraham Lincoln, remember, was a third party candidate. Now, it's our turn to elect a third-party candidate. Let's go into the new millennium as one and show those Democrats and Republicans we are not going away! Thank you very much. (Applause) SPOKESMAN: I do solemnly swear - JESSE VENTURA: (taking oath of office) I do solemnly swear -- BETTY ANN BOWSER: The former professional wrestler was sworn in, in January, after getting more votes than any statewide Reform candidate since the party was founded in 1996. He beat out both the traditional candidates with substantially less money. SPOKESMAN: All those in favor indicate by raising your card. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And as delegates began to consider a wide range of issues before them, the NewsHour caught up with the governor at a TV station in Minneapolis. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: One of the major issues that troubles me is the buying of elective office today. It is simple. It is buying and selling. And it's nothing against Governor Bush. It is the party, the soft money, the dirty, filthy - and I can't use any other terms - of how they raise money. BETTY ANN BOWSER: And, in fact, campaign finance reform was at the top of the list as delegates approved a platform that also includes support for term limits, fair international trade, education reform, and a proposal to allow voters to register and vote on election day. Dan Plyer and girlfriend Beth Moore are like a lot of the delegates; they came on a shoestring budget. They drove all night from Morehead, Kentucky. They went to all this trouble because they are fed up with both traditional parties. DAN PLYER, Reform Party Delegate: It's a third party. The revolution has just started in the United States. Normally, the Democrats and Republicans - or as I refer to them as the Cryps and the Bloods - you are either for them, or you're against them, while I review the Reform Party as like the Guardian Angels. I mean, they, normally they just tell you to walk, you know, on the fence, and one side. Well, this is a movement that you can say you're walking down the middle of the street. You know, we are economically conservative. And we're, you know, we're -- socially, we are liberal. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Plyer and Moore are Ventura fans. They supported his choice as the next chairman of the Reform Party, 68-year-old Jack Gargen, a retired investment counselor from Florida. When he won, it signed a major changing of the guard within the party. SPOKESMAN: 135 for Benjamin. 213 for Gargan. Jack Gargan is the new national chair from the state of Florida. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Gargan beat out a longtime supporter of the party's founding father, Texas millionaire and twice presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. Gargan is no stranger to politics. Last year he got 33 percent of the vote in a Florida congressional race - but it was Ventura's power at the ballot box the new chairman wanted to talk about. JACK GARGAN, Chairman-elect, Reform Party: We do have one tremendous thing going for us, and that is the election of Governor Jesse Ventura. (Applause) And his election is not only the greatest thing that's happened to this party, but the greatest thing that's happened to the third party movement entirely, and maybe for this whole country. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Gargan's victory means that for the first time the Reform Party is no longer under the exclusive control of Perot, who spoke on Saturday night. ROSS PEROT: Who owns this country? AUDIENCE SHOUTING IN UNISON: We do! ROSS PEROT: Do you want a balanced budget? AUDIENCE SHOUTING IN UNISON: Yes! ROSS PEROT: Do you want to pay the debt? AUDIENCE SHOUTING IN UNISON: Yes! ROSS PEROT: Don't you think we ought to clean up health care and make it work for the people and not the special interests? AUDIENCE SHOUTING IN UNISON: Yes! ROSS PEROT: Wouldn't you like to have a medical system that puts the patient first? AUDIENCE SHOUTING IN UNISON: Yes! ROSS PEROT: We can and we will if we stay the course, get in position, and wait for the opportunity. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Perot also left open the possibility of another run for the presidency, and he tried to squash reports of a feud between himself and Governor Ventura. ROSS PEROT: The thing I want you to understand, that as long as I am helpful to the organization, and I am certainly happy to help and participate in any constructive way. The last thing I want is all of these things that I see in the paper day in and day out about cat fights and this and that and the other that have nothing to do with fact but make great fiction. And I think if we are -- just remember, united teams win and divided teams lose. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Many of the delegates, like Catherine Seibel, warned Perot to make another run for the presidency. Seibel is a longtime Perot supporter and helped get him on the ballot in Tennessee in 1992. CATHERINE SIEBEL, Reform Party Delegate: Ross Perot has been the central figure in the Reform Party since its inception. Has had two presidential campaigns, which I view as largely successful, based solely on the strength of Ross Perot himself, his principles, his motivation, his integrity. The issues he brings to the table are still very, very much a part of the American theme. And I think that he is the embodiment of what we would want in a presidential candidate. BETTY ANN BOWSER: But so far as Ventura is concerned, the days of the Reform Party as Perot's party are over. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: It's time for Mr. Perot to continue to be involved in the party but at a supportive level. It's time for him to now step to the sidelines. It's time to step aside now, be supportive, still be there for the party, work within the party on the sidelines, but it's time for the party to grow beyond Mr. Perot. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Next year the Reform Party will enter presidential politics with many divisions within its ranks. This weekend's convention attracted fewer delegates than in the past, and the party has lost ballot access in some states. Gargan says those problems will get top priority. JACK GARGAN: We need more delegates at these meetings. We need every state represented. Once that's done - and I hope that's going to be quick - then we start focusing on regaining ballot access and looking for candidates, we want to have a full slate of candidates to run. We're going to have a party - we've got to have unity - things happen along the way. They're behind us. We've got a whole bright future ahead of us. BETTY ANN BOWSER: The Reform Party will also have nearly $13 million from the federal government to runs next year's presidential campaign, because candidate Perot got more than 5 percent of the vote in 1996, which made the party eligible for the windfall. But so far there has been no front runner as a willing candidate. Ventura says he won't run, period. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: In 2000, I will not run because I made a commitment to the state of Minnesota that I wanted to be their governor. Now, that's three and a half more years. I'm not going to run off - that's the very thing that irritates me about career politicians. They run and get this job, then they make the money off this job; they sit there while they run for a higher job to advance their own personal careers. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Perot is reportedly ambivalent about another run. So, delegates are casting a wide net, from New York real estate mogul and millionaire Donald Trump, to retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell, who has said he's not interested either. Ventura has some ideas of his own. GOV. JESSE VENTURA: A man like Lowell Weiker is an interesting candidate that could step forward. Senator McCain from Arizona - there's a possibility, if he would be willing to jump, because - you know -- I think very strongly he is not going to get the Republican nod. He also in a way got slammed down. His main thing is campaign finance reform, and they slammed the door on him. Well, campaign finance reform is a front burner issue for the Reform Party. BETTY ANN BOWSER: In addition to attracting an electable candidate, delegates left Dearborn facing another challenge: Polls show voters have less enthusiasm for any third-party candidate today than they have since 1992, when Perot first ignited the spark that led to formation of the Reform Party.