By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources, (www.originalsources.com)
August 11, 2000
One of the major tenets of the Reform Party, as envisaged by Ross Perot, has been Campaign Finance Reform, the very same issue that seemed to catapult John McCain into the limelight. Federal matching funds constitute the cornerstone of campaign finance reform which would eliminate what John McCain said in a press release was "the corrupting influence of special interests in campaigns."
What we are seeing the in all-out war between the two factions of the Reform Party convention in Long Beach this week, which will probably end in two factions nominating their own candidate, is what you can expect of all parties should the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance bill ever become law.
What most of the proposed so-called "campaign finance reform" bills do is to force federal candidates to rely on government entitlement funds, rather than contributions from candidates supporters. The McCain Feingold bill, for example, totally eliminates money from non-profit organizations or so-called "issue" advertising in behalf of a candidate. It regulates, but does not eliminate, campaign funding from unions and big business. That means that a non-profit organization opposing partial birth abortion, or supporting partial birth abortion, would be prevented by law from funding commercials that might assist a candidate who agrees with their position.
The Reform Party platform calls for Campaign Finance Reform which would socialize election campaigns. It would require "free and equal access to the media resources for all qualified candidates" and that "TV and radio stations will allocate sufficient time for candidate forums which includes all qualified candidates, or presidential candidates that qualify for matching funds." It calls for the outlawing of the major tenant of the 1970’s Campaign Finance Reform, Political Action Committees and would give the non-elected Federal Elections Commission near total control over political campaigns.
"We shall seek to reform our electoral, lobbying and campaign practices to ensure that our elected government officials and our candidates owe their allegiance and remain accountable to the people whom they are elected to serve rather than other influence-seeking agencies." That sounds like it was lifted intact from some Socialist country’s constitution. When they talk about "the people," what Socialist constitutions really mean is the government.
Pat Buchanan and his supporters, since he left the Republican party and joined the Reform Party, have been systematically building their base in the party, getting their delegates elected in a perfectly frank and reasonably open effort to take over the Reform party and its $12.6 dollars in federal matching funds for the year 2000 election.
As a result, at the Reform Party convention as delegates were being seated "Buchanan's supporters on the party's credentials committee certified 54 challenged delegates in his favor Wednesday, giving him 410 delegates pledged to his candidacy. That is more than the two-thirds needed under party rules to win the Reform nomination on the convention floor."
However, the old Perot placed leadership of the party, who have backed Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin, erupted in anger. A USA Today article observed:
A faction headed by party secretary Jim Mangia and Russ Verney, an associate of party founder Ross Perot, led a walkout from the national committee Tuesday. They said they will hold their own convention today and nominate Hagelin. After that, they will ask the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to recognize their faction as the legitimate Reform Party and release to them the $ 12.6 million in federal money the party is to get for the fall campaign.
Another tenet of the Reform Party platform reads:
The positions of our Party on all issues will be chosen in accordance with the best interests of our country, its people and its future generations without regard for partisan or personal advantage.The foundation of our Party is the activity of grassroots citizen volunteers. The Reform Party will make our candidates, party officials and elected officials accountable to our grassroots members who are their principal support. Our Party is open to participation by all who wish to join us to work toward our goals.
We shall restore integrity, accountability and fiscal responsibility to government and its leadership
What has occurred, of course, is that Pat Buchanan’s supporters have joined the Reform party in droves after Buchanan joined the party. They have spent the past eight months quietly molding state organizations after the Buchanan mold and have arrived in Long Beach as a very strong majority of the "grassroots" of the Party.
This was not exactly what by party secretary Jim Mangia and Perot associate Russ Verney had in mind when they welcomed Buchanan into the party. It is, however, exactly what any astute political observer would expect to happen when a party reaches the point of having Federal Matching Funds, which is 5% of the vote in the last election.
While Ross in 1992 Ross Perot got 19% of the vote, most of it pulled from the Republicans, he did not receive a single electoral college vote. In 1996 Perot got only 9% of the total vote, and no electoral college votes. In both cases, however, it was enough to get Bill Clinton elected when combined with the constant attacks on both George Bush, Sr., and Bob Dole by conservatives.
This year the third party candidate who seems to be moving up rapidly is Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, who probably will cost Al Gore votes, whereas the Conservatives have two Conservative Republicans, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, to vote for, as well as Pat Buchanan, who has a very conservative stance on social issues and a very independent stance on issues such as trade. Pat could attract social conservative union workers who traditionally vote Democrat this year. Another plank of the Reform Party is:
The Reform Party believes in a Balanced Tailored Trade program that promotes the economic interests and welfare of all our citizens while safeguarding domestic production.
That "safeguarding domestic production" especially appeals to disgruntled Union workers. However, there is little motivation for pro-life voters to vote for Pat Buchanan, thereby probably giving the White House to a Democrat, when they have two very attractive and electable pro-life candidates in the Republican Party.
So, asks the Long Beach, Califonia Press-Telegram (http://www.press-telegram.com) as it tries to figure out the squabbling Reform delegates in their midst, "Where's the REAL convention?" Reporters who were irritated by the "lack of news," meaning the lack of contention, in the Republican Conference in Philadelphia are not happy with the Reform Conventions either which is chock full of contention. Instead of being able to wander around among delegates in one air-conditioned convention hall, they have been forced to walk a half-mile in the hot California sun to check on the OTHER Reform Party convention and try to decide which of the two is the "real" convention. It prompted the Press-Telegram reporter to testily observe:
So, we hike what has to be half a mile, in heat that has to be 120 degrees, to the Terrace Theater, home of the Hagelin sect of the Reform Party, where we find Jim Bourassa, the founding chairman of the Reform Party in Arizona, who says, as a matter of fact, that he does "have a problem with how Buchanan has his own people who he's calling Reform Party delegates" and that the whole matter will be settled in court.So, we trudge back down the stairs, past the fountain, down through the backlot of the Long Beach Arena, up Seaside Way, over to Pine Avenue, up the stairs, across the Promenade and back into the Convention Center, where we find the denim vest people and ask Their Leader if the name Jim Bourassa rings a bell.
"Yeah. I've seen him around."
"Well," we say, "he has a problem with you guys."
"Does he?" the denimmed delegate responds, in a manner that indicate he cares about as much about Bourassa's little "problem" as he does about what we had for lunch last Monday.
"Um. Yes, and ...," I continue.
"I choose not to talk about it. Thank you for asking, though," he says.
We choose to end the conversation anyway, as the only fun we'd been having so far in this back-and-forth style of give-and-take is asking, "Where's the REAL convention?" of each candidate's spokespeople.
On one leg of our cross-convention travels we run smack into Col. Oscar Poole, an alternate delegate from the Great State of Georgia and proprietor of Poole's Bar-B-Q "Pig Hill of Fame" in East Ellijay, Ga.
The Colonel (so called because he's "The Colonel Sanders of Barbecue") is decked out in a screamingly yellow blazer and an Uncle Sam top hat (plus, you know, some other clothes) and he proclaims the divisiveness is healthy for the entire world. "It's the American system at work," he says. "It's grass roots. It's giving the little man a voice. It's what the Reform Party is all about."
We note that, little man aside, how can the Reform Party run a country, when it can't get a handful of Arizonans to sit in the same room, and how the whole thing is sort of unrealistic, anyway, since even a unanimously nominated Reform Party candidate, at this point, would be trailing the dead horse Swaps by a length and a half in the polls.
The Colonel laughs and switches the subject to how Buchanan was out to his barbecue joint one time, and "I gave him a pig."
Welcome to the political party conventions of the future when they are financed by tax funds, rather than by people who contribute money because they are concerned about an issue. When people have enough interest in a candidate to contribute money for that candidate, it generally is because of their concern about some "special interest" such as abortion, trade, military preparedness, the economy, education, war, etc. When you have socialized medicine, or socialized politics, or socialized schools or a socialized economy, you get exactly what we are watching today in the Reform Party meetings in Long Beach - a battle over who gets the tax money.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
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