Perot Blasts Democrats, GOP as ‘the Problem’

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — Ross Perot on Sunday accepted the nomination of the political party he founded and attacked the Democratic and Republican parties as captives of “special interests” that will not have the political fortitude to balance the budget and bring down the national debt.

“Can we count on the two political parties to solve these problems?” he asked about 2,000 Reform Party delegates meeting in this town where George Washington and his Revolutionary War soldiers spent the winter of 1777-78.

“They are the problem,” the Texas billionaire proclaimed.

Perot’s themes echoed those of his upstart independent campaign in 1992, when he received more than 19% of the popular vote. Many observers believe that most of those votes probably would have otherwise gone to the Republican ticket headed by then-President Bush.

Perot’s appeal seems to have waned this year. The party mailed ballots to the 1.1 million voters who signed petitions in the past year seeking a place for Perot on state ballots, but only about 50,000 returned their ballots by mail, computer or e-mail.

Perot won about 65% of the Reform Party vote, compared with 35% for Richard D. Lamm, a Democrat when he served three terms as Colorado’s governor.

Lamm, speaking before Perot at the party’s national convention, vowed to continue working on behalf of a third party in U.S. politics but pointedly did not say he would work for Perot in his campaign against President Clinton and Republican candidate Bob Dole.

“The two major political parties are not going to reform our campaign and election system,” Lamm said. “Our two major political parties are not going to be able to govern in the long-term interests of our children.”

Lamm’s running mate, California businessman and former Republican Rep. Ed Zschau, said he would not support Perot, whom he described as lacking the temperament and the experience needed of a president.

Perot has yet to name a vice presidential candidate.

Appearing on CNN’s “Larry King Live” immediately after addressing the party delegates, Perot said he had decided to accept the $30 million in federal campaign funds that he qualified for on the strength of his showing in the 1992 election.

His agreement to accept federal funds automatically limits him to spending $50,000 of his own money. Four years ago, when he did not qualify for federal funds, he spent $60 million of his own fortune on his campaign.

Earlier in the day, the convention took on a surreal air. With no organized activities until after the dinner hour, the attendees passed the time by listening to patriotic music and posing for pictures with people dressed as Benjamin Franklin and the Statue of Liberty.

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Reform Party members milled about the convention center complex, chatting among themselves and being interviewed by the dozens of reporters attending the convention’s final day.

“This is historic,” said Richard Toliver, a community organizer for Perot’s business and political activities. “But I’m not in it for the history. I’m in it because I’m sick and fed up with politics as it’s been in this country.”

Toliver said he was convinced Perot had a “credible chance” to win the November election.

“Mathematically it’s a possibility because you have to begin with the 20 million votes he got in 1992 and add to that the Democrats and Republicans who say they are dissatisfied with their own party,” he said. “If we get 10% from both parties, we can win in November.”

Gerald Posner, a Perot biographer, said he found many of the Texan’s supporters to have no perception of the uphill struggle facing the fledgling party as it seeks to elect its nominee. “The Perot people are undaunted,” Posner said. “The true believers brook no criticism and see no problems.”

Most politicians doubt that Perot can do much more than act as a spoiler for the Republican ticket of Dole and Jack Kemp--and some believe his following is too small even for that.

Patrick J. Buchanan, who challenged Dole for the Republican nomination, said on the “Fox News Sunday” television program that Perot could drain 9% or 10% of the electorate who would otherwise vote Republican in November--a serious blow to Dole’s chances.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), by contrast, said Perot posed no threat to the GOP ticket. “Our job is to offer a solution,” he said on the Fox program. “Let Ross Perot do what he wants to do.”

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Lamm, who emerged from seclusion to host a $50-a-plate breakfast, criticized party leaders for being more loyal to Perot than to the creation of a viable alternative political organization. He declined to say whether he would campaign for Perot.

In an appearance earlier Sunday on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” he said party officials also overstated the size of the organization. “When we say there’s 1.3 million people in the Reform Party,” he said, “I think the number’s closer to the 50,000 that voted.”

While many of Perot’s supporters attending the convention expressed blind faith in their leader, some party members who had come to encourage Lamm said they would work only reluctantly to elect Perot.

“I’m more concerned with building a major, national third party than electing Perot,” said Jack Essenberg, a county leader of New York’s Independence Party, a Reform Party ally. “If taking Perot helps us build a party, then I’ll do that,” he said, adding that the Reform Party would be better off “if Ross Perot would step out of the process and let new leadership emerge.”