As the party implodes

Reform leaders discuss canceling their convention as Perot-Buchanan forces trade insults, and the party prepares for its vote-by-mail presidential nomination.

By Anthony York

Jun 13, 2000 | Just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder, Reform Party leaders are talking about canceling the party's national convention, citing "threats of violence" made against the party's secretary, Jim Mangia.

Earlier this month Delaware state party chairman William Shields, a Pat Buchanan ally, sent a memo to state party leaders calling for the removal of Mangia, who is allied with party founder and Buchanan rival Ross Perot. "I am interested in a resolution at the convention to remove Jim Mangia from any leadership role in this party, and to physically eject him, along with any trash or dangerous biological waste that may have found its way onto the convention floor." Mangia, who is gay, took the remark as an anti-gay slur.

The clash led party leaders to debate canceling the convention altogether in a meeting of its executive committee last week. Former Reform Party chairman Russ Verney, a longtime Perot ally, admits there's been talk about canceling the convention, but adds, "I think it's a wait-and-see attitude. I think it's not about canceling, but about getting a handle on this growing feeling of intimidation. It might just result in some additional security measures and things of that nature."

The Shields-Mangia battle is the latest manifestation of the rivalry between Buchanan and Perot that's currently dividing the party -- now that both men succeeded in driving Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura out. Mangia is now seen as the leader of the anti-Buchanan faction of the Reform Party. While he joined forces with Buchanan allies to oust the Ventura-backed former chairman, Jack Gargan, it was a temporary alliance, and Buchanan backers like Shields see Mangia as the enemy.

The latest dust-up is not doing much to help Reform shuck the freak show label it has earned over the last year. It comes as the party's mail-in primary struggles to get off the ground. Reform activists on all sides are already crying foul, and party leaders are still trying to tinker with a nominating process -- and fight for control of $12.6 million in federal matching funds -- that is set to officially begin in less than three weeks.

"It's an experiment with a capital E" said Donna Donovan, the often-fired and just-as-often rehired national press secretary for the party. "Clearly the system is far from perfect, but we're just all going to have to wait and see what happens."

What is supposed to be happening? State party organizations should be assembling lists of eligible voters to send to the national party. By July 1, the national party will have ballots printed, and will mail a ballot to everybody on the lists they receive from the various state organizations.

According to the national Reform Party bylaws, anybody who is a registered member of the Reform Party will automatically receive a ballot. In addition, any registered voter who has signed a petition for a candidate to qualify for the ballot should also receive a ballot. Any other registered voter who is not affiliated with the Reform Party can also request a ballot, but the procedure for requesting a ballot varies from state to state.

In California, for example, voters who are not registered party members must either send a letter or a fax to the state party headquarters. They will then be added to the list that will be sent to the national party. Voters should receive their ballots in mid July, and votes will be counted up until the party's national convention in August, where the nominee will be announced.

The party is expected to announce later this week that it will also allow eligible voters to cast their ballots via the Internet. "Each ballot will come coded with a PIN number, and people who want to vote electronically should have the option to do so," said Ray Mills, chairman of the California Reform Party, who is backing Pat Buchanan.

Yet Robert Bowes, chairman of the Maryland Reform Party and a backer of Pat Buchanan, said hopes of an honest, open, democratic primary are a pipe dream at this stage of the party's development. "The mail-in primary is really an effort to show that we're inclusive and democratic. It's a great goal. We're just a few steps away from getting there," he said. "I'd love to see it go off smoothly, but I believe we're kind of hamstrung because of the lack of financial resources. The executive committee adopted this as a feel-good maneuver."

Bowes said the national party has agreed to spend $1 million on compiling all the lists and sending out ballots to people who should receive them. But that money is not nearly enough to deal with the actual costs of maintaining voting lists and sending out ballots.

"The Reform Party isn't doing any of this. The cost is being pushed off on the campaigns," he said. "The Buchanan campaign is trying to conduct the operations of the party because the leaders of the party are not competent enough to do it themselves. They're spending all their time on bickering. They don't have the business sense to run this, and we don't have the resources."

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