Will the Reform Party be back next year?

[BrainGlutton]

The Reform Party was founded in 1995 by Ross Perot, mainly as a vehicle for his second presidential candidacy. Perot discouraged any Reform candidacies for local or state offices or Congress (some happened anyway), and drafted the party rules to keep himself in total control. In 1998-200 the party was wracked by internal fights between the old-guard Perot faction; the more libertarian Jesse Ventura faction; the socially conservative Pat Buchanan faction; and a small Marxist group led by Lenora Fulani. At the 2000 convention, with Perot no longer seeking the presidency, the Buchanan faction made use of Perot’s centralized rules to secure the nomination for Buchanan and make it stick. A large dissident minority walked out, claimed the status of the “true” Reform Party, and gave its nomination to Natural Law Party leader John Hagelin. Perot himself ultimately endorsed Bush. After the election, Buchanan walked out of the Reform Party and took a lot of his faction with him. The brief arc of the Reform Party has left the following organizations in the field:

The original Reform Party: http://www.reformparty.org/ Still around, but without any high-profile leadership.

The American Reform Party: http://www.reformparty.org/ Broke away from the Reform Party in 1997 over Perot’s undemocratic leadership style. Shifted left and endorsed Nader in 2000.

The America First Party: http://www.americafirstparty.org/ Founded in 1992 by Buchanan Brigade defectors for the Reform Party. A conservative-populist party: Nativist, anti-immigrant, isolationist, anti-war, anti-globalization, anti-U.N., anti-Wall Street, anti-abortion, anti-gay-rights.

The Independence Party: http://www.mnip.org/ Founded by Jesse Ventura’s faction in February 2000. Libertarian-leaning. At present active only in Minnesota although a chapter is said to be forming in Florida.

So what happens in 2000? I think this is going to be a close enough election that a third-party challenge could really affect the results. Perot might well have changed the outcome of the 1992 and 1996 elections, Nader the 2000. Will the Reform Party or any of its progeny run a candidate for president? Will the campaign be strong enough to make a difference?

(Info taken from Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America, by Micah L. Sifry (Routledge, 2002); and from Politics1.com, http://www.politics1.com.

[BrainGlutton]

Lenora Fulani, by the way, is now associated (as a member, not an officer) with the Independence Party of New York. Its website (http://www.ipny.org/) states, “The Independence Party of New York is not affiliated with any other political party,” so I infer this is not a branch of Jesse Ventura’s Independence Party.

[crazy_grady]

The Reform Party basically committed suicide in 2000. The Reform Party had its convention in a place called Diamondhead, Mississippi, which I believe is not far from Jackson, Mississippi. The state coordinator Shawn O’Hara stated that they choice this place because rooms at the Ramada there were $49 dollars per night. O’Hara is one of those people who runs for anyhting in any election and never gets elected (I am from the area). Shawn ran for Governor of Mississippi and got less than 1 percent of the vote.

The Reform Party nominated an 80 year old, Dwight Eisenhower impersonator named Ted Weill, from Tylertown, Mississippi. You can find all the people who are running for President, including the weird ones at www.politics1.com.

[Governor_Quinn]

*Originally posted by BrainGlutton *
**Lenora Fulani, by the way, is now associated (as a member, not an officer) with the Independence Party of New York. Its website (http://www.ipny.org/) states, “The Independence Party of New York is not affiliated with any other political party,” so I infer this is not a branch of Jesse Ventura’s Independence Party. **

It was founded before the 1994 election as the New York branch of the Reform Party, but it now has basically become the alter-ego of Tom Golisano, a multi-millionaire who runs for Governor every 4 years on the Independence Party line.

[BrainGlutton]

Posted by crazy grady:

The Reform Party nominated an 80 year old, Dwight Eisenhower impersonator named Ted Weill, from Tylertown, Mississippi.

Then I guess we can ignore Reform for the coming election cycle. When you’ve reached the point where you nominate an unknown octagenarian for president, you’re just going through the motions. You might as well be the Socialist Party. (Of which I’m a member.)

We’ve heard very little out of the American Reform Party since it was founded and I don’t see that changing in the near future.

The Independence Party has no presence outside Minnesota and we probably won’t be hearing from them, either, barring the unlikely eventuality that Jesse Ventura decides to run for president.

That leaves America First, which is Patrick Buchanan’s baby. Since Buchanan ran a third-party candidacy for president in 2000, and since he plainly and publicly hates the Bush administration and all its works (especially the Iraq war), I would expect him to run as the America First nominee in 2004. But the America First Party is still in the process of finding itself. From http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm:

The America First Party (http://www.americafirstparty.org/) was founded in Spring 2002 by a large group of Buchanan Brigade defectors who splintered away from the declining Reform Party to form this new, uncompromisingly social conservative and fair trade party (with a strong foundation in the Religious Right movement). The views of the party largely echo those espoused by commentator Pat Buchanan during his three Presidential bids. The AFP is dedicated to “protect our people and our sovereignty … promote economic growth and independence … encourage the traditional values of faith, family, and responsibility … ensure equality before the law in protecting those rights granted by the Creator … [and] to clean up our corrupted political system.” Within a month of the AFP’s founding, ten former Reform Party state chapters formally broke away from the RP and affiliated with the AFP. By the August 2002 National Convention, the AFP had affiliates in around 20 states – and they hoped to be organized in nearly all 50 states by the end of 2003. Now, those hopes seem dashed. The AFP’s national chair, vice chair and treasurer have all resigned in mid-2003 after a hardcore group affiliated with ultra-right militia movement leader Bo Gritz (http://www.bogritz.com/) purportedly grabbed control of key party elements. Others in the AFP denied this, saying the Gritz complaints were just a pretext to mask serious financial problems and personality divisions within the party that really caused the collapse. So – for whatever reasons – many AFP state parties apparently left the national party for the same reason. The AFP National Convention – set for July 2003 – was cancelled. The party even abandoned the possibility of fielding a Presidential candidate in 2004. A Buchananite AFP faction reported that they will attempt to reorganize at mid-2003 meeting – placing a greater emphasis on building state party strength.

There is obvious poetic justice in Buchanan trying to form his own third party and being derailed by a takeover bid from a leader even more radical than himself. But can he overcome this setback and mount a presidential campaign next year? And will that make a difference? Will Buchanan attract enough of a following to cost Bush votes?