Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993 TAG: 9302170163
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
PEROT GROUP SPLINTERS
Ross Perot's grass-roots presidential campaign has been turned on its head since November, with orders now coming from the top down, says a group of dissident Perot supporters in Virginia."The organization they've set up in the state is a virtual dictatorship," said Robert Burke, a Perot volunteer on the Peninsula.
"What's scary about this thing is that Perot gets on TV and advocates taking the country back, the grass roots, from the ground up. But here in Virginia it's exactly not that way. It's the antithesis," he said.
Those concerns are not shared in Roanoke by the coordinator of the 6th District's chapter of United We Stand America, a nonprofit foundation to keep the Perot movement alive.
The group "is not getting involved in the personal agendas that seem to be flying around," said coordinator Daniel Bigger.
Bigger said some critics within the movement may be motivated by ambitions for a state or regional post. He said a core group of about 20 volunteers working on a Roanoke-based membership drive has no time for such infighting.
"That's all ego-motivated," he said.
Thomas M. Overocker, state chairman of the Perot organization in Reston, said the number of dissenters is small and that the group is trying to focus on a membership drive before getting into organizational matters.
"I figure we had about 10,000 active volunteers" in the state, he said. "If I were to count up the people who are complaining, that would be well under 100. That's not a significant number to me."
Perot got 94,000 petition signers in Virginia for his presidential bid and then got 340,000 votes in November. Last month, the Texas billionaire announced he was launching the nonprofit foundation. The membership goal in Virginia is 26,000.
In a recent publication, Overocker described Perot as a "benevolent dictator." That upset Burke and some other Perot followers.
"It's gotten to the point that this dictatorship has overshadowed everything," Burke said.
Overocker didn't deny the characterization. "It's an unfortunate choice of words, but I think the concept is valid," he said.
The Peninsula splinter group, which claims about 30 members, is operating out of a former Perot campaign headquarters.
Ed Campbell, a Dallas staffer who oversees the Perot operation in Virginia and 12 other states, met with the Peninsula group two weeks ago and ended up siding with Overocker, the state chairman said.
"Dallas' position and my position is we're working on a membership drive, and we're not dealing with organizational matters" until the membership goal is reached, Overocker said.
Jim Squires, national spokesman for the Perot presidential campaign, said such infighting cropped up periodically during the campaign.
"There are people who had a chance to speak and to argue, and they lost. Then they say they are being dictated to," he said.
Squires said conflict may be inevitable among the disparate group of disaffected citizens brought together under Perot's banner.
"A lot of people listen to his rhetoric and see things they want to see," he said. "If they're conservative, they see his conservative side. If they're liberal, they see his tolerant, liberal side."
Staff writer Laurence Hammack contributed to this story.