THE DEVIL, ROSS PEROT LIKES TO say, is in the details. So it’s not surprising that Dick Lamm finds himself in Reform Party Hell. The former Colorado governor has been getting an education in democracy, Ross style, since he decided to challenge Perot for the new party’s first presidential nomination. Want the list of the 1.3 million Reform Party members who have supposedly received ballots in the mail? Love to help, party officials told Lamm, but it would violate federal election regulations. By the way, they went on, even if you were to use the list for direct mailings, the language would have to be reviewed in advance by Perot-paid bureaucrats in Dallas. That’s to guard against negative campaigning, of course. The pugnacious Lamm is growing more than a little exasperated. “I don’t mind being a [sacrificial] lamb,” he said, “but I don’t want to be a goat.”
The party that was supposed to transform American politics now looks like just another venue for Perot’s control fetish. After insisting that the party “isn’t about me”–and encouraging Lamm to run–Perot jumped into the race within a day of Lamm’s announcement. Lamm, who wanted to run a high-minded campaign on the need for fiscal austerity, has resorted to indignant sputtering. Forced to debate Perot factotum and Reform Party chairman Russ Verney on CNN (Perot himself won’t appear with Lamm), the former governor demanded access to the mailing list. “I wouldn’t run for president of my third grade without having the same list as my opponent,” Lamm said. Needling Perot isn’t a bad strategy for Lamm: Perot under attack is never a pretty sight, and if Lamm can shake the list loose, he’ll have a way to reach potential Reform voters just before the conventions.
But Lamm got yet another surprise when he checked with the firm that printed the ballots. Only 980,000 had been mailed– not the 1.3 million claimed by Perot–and there were odd gaps. In Lamm’s Colorado, for example, 20,000 people signed Reform Party petitions, but only 3,000 got ballots. In a letter to Lamm’s lawyer, Verney said the party has “worked day and night to make sure…we have a fair and open process for selecting a nominee.” Lamm adviser Tom D’Amore sees anything but. “I’m never sure whether I’m talking to the head of the Reform Party or to Ross Perot’s campaign manager,” he said.
Meanwhile, Perot’s peculiar machinery grinds on. Early next week, Reform officials are expected to announce that Lamm and Perot have both won at least 10 percent of the mail ballots. That entitles them to speak in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 11, at the first phase of the party’s two-part national convention. Everyone with a ballot can then vote again. A week later, the first Reform Party nominee will be announced in Valley Forge, Pa. Should Perot win, it will pose an uncomfortable question: who will reform the Reform Party?
