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TODAY o October 9, 2000
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Reform Party rivals battling for high stakes
Saeed Ahmed - Staff
Thursday, August 10, 2000, 2000
For political junkies tired of tightly choreographed conventions and eager for a little mudslinging, the Reform Party gathering this weekend promises to be must-see TV.
The four-day nominating convention that begins in Long Beach, California, today pits one-time GOP fixture Pat Buchanan against loyalists of party founder Ross Perot, who want the pugnacious conservative commentator disqualified.
They say Buchanan improperly padded his voter rolls in the party's national mail-in primary and refused to turn over the list of those who received ballots from him when asked.
The tumultous tussle resembles professional wrestling more than it does politics-as-usual, and the stakes are high: a fractured party's future, the presidential nomination and \\$12.5 million in federal matching funds.
The hostility between the two camps came to a boil Tuesday when Buchanan called a pre-convention national meeting and overturned his disqualification using the formidable majority of delegates he has garnered touring the country and installing new chapters.
In a departure from Party rules, the meeting was a closed-door affair to prevent it from turning into the kind of televised free-for-all that marred a similar gathering last winter in Nashville.
Nevertheless the showdown degenerated into a shouting, shoving match with Perot loyalists storming out and promising to run a rival convention in the same convention center and nominate their own candidate. They are also considering a lawsuit to block Buchanan from gaining access to the federal matching funds that Perot earned in the 1996 election by winning 9 percent of the popular vote.
"It's not over until we defeat the Brownshirts and despicable tactic of the Buchanan campaign," said national secretary Jim Mangia, who led the walk-out.
The bizzarre turn of events could mean a hostile face-off between the two Reform Party factions at the opening day of the convention today.
"If you liked the video of Nashville, you are going to want the film from Long Beach," said former party chair Russ Verney, a leader in the anti-Buchanan camp.
So combustible is the atmosphere that organizers have beefed up security, with state and local police outside the convention halls, installed metal detectors at the entrances and stationed a dozen bouncers inside to handle any rowdy outbreak. There was even talk of a "tomato screen" to prevent delegates from throwing food on speakers, but ultimately the idea was rejected.
"We are prepared for every eventuality in terms of physical threats, because there will be people there who will try to disrupt the proceedings," said interim party chair Gerald Moan.
Meanwhile, Buchanan, who claims that "it is pretty much the end of the Reform Party" if he is denied the nomination, is so sure of getting the party nod that he has alerted reporters to the time and place of his victory party.
But lost in all the brouhaha is the man standing between Buchanan and the $12.6 million: John Hagelin. A nuclear physicist from Iowa and a third-time nominee of the Natural Law Party, Hagelin agreed to also run on the Reform ticket at the behest of Perot supporters who needed someone to block the socially-conservative Buchanan after their leader declined repeated entreaties to oblige.
"For over a year, I have been campaigning to forge a powerful coalition of America's leading third parties, and the Reform Party in the past has been such a powerful voice for reform in America [that] it was a perfect fit," said Hagelin.
Buchanan, however, doesn't take his competition seriously. He refers to Hagelin as "that fella" and has said, "I have run into John in 10 conventions and I have beat him every time."
For his part, Hagelin has tried to stay above the fray, but with one verbal volley after another from the Buchanan camp -- from accusing one of his spokespersons of being a fugitive in the FBI's most wanted list, to calling him a "cult leader" for his practice of transcendental meditation -- that is getting increasingly difficult, he said.
"The nature of the Buchanan campaign is to be bitter and divisive. It's unfortunate, but it's unavoidable," Hagelin said.
Like his opponent with the "far-right social agenda," the secular and socially liberal Hagelin also believes that in the end the nomination will belong to him.
"If the courts talk to the lawyers, the lawyers will tell them that the faction that holds up legally with the proper credentialing procedures is ours, and the other is just a Buchanan pageant," said Hagelin.
Through all the ruckus, Texas billionaire Perot, who founded the party in 1992, is nowhere to be seen, opting out of a part in this macabre drama. Convention organizer, Judy Duffy, sad she invited Ross Perot by letter but got no response.
The party's convention lasts until Sunday and so will the mayhem. Perot loyalist Mangia promises more turmoil there, and Buchanan backer Moan agrees.
"You aint seen nothing yet," he said.
Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better.
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