THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606140704
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DWAYNE YANCEY, ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: 114 lines
They came a long way to do very little. But for the 60 or so delegates who made up the first state convention of the Virginia Independent Party, the most remarkable thing may be that they came at all.
Four years after Texas billionaire Ross Perot's independent presidential campaign, the movement he unleashed remains very much alive, though not necessarily under his command.
Those who gathered recently at the Howard Johnson here were animated by a lofty goal - starting a third national political party, this one to represent the so-called ``radical middle'' of the American electorate.
Speaker after speaker likened the convention delegates to Abraham Lincoln and the forerunners of the modern Republican Party, which emerged to displace the Whigs in the mid-19th century.
``It is possible that this year the presidency can be won by someone other than the Democratic or Republican nominee,'' King George County cemetery operator Louis Herrink assured the convention. ``Any time someone says, `Cut out this talk about a third party,' I say remember 1856 and 1860 (when Lincoln won the presidency). Don't let 'em buffalo you. It is possible.''
Possible, but still difficult, as the weekend's events showed. The Virginia Independent Party - essentially, the Virginia wing of Perot's new Reform Party - saw its convention almost collapse into chaos, with delegates shouting at one another over even the simplest of resolutions.
``If you didn't have a little fighting, it wouldn't be a political meeting,'' said Herrink, a former Republican activist who serves as the party's state chairman.
But Brian Menard, a University of Virginia graduate student who has studied the Reform Party's birthing pains and attended the convention as an observer, attributed the confusion to the simple inexperience of most of the VIP activists.
``They want to do things, but they don't like all this procedural stuff,'' he said. ``I think that's why there's so much chaos.''
``They've had agreements. They've had battles. They've discovered politics.''
In fact, by all accounts, the Virginia wing of what began as ``the Perot movement'' is actually in the forefront of Perot's efforts to create a new national party. While the leaders of Perot's presidential campaign in some other states disbanded after 1992, his Virginia organizers stayed together - and organized a new party on their own, dubbed the Virginia Independent Party.
With a little luck, and some political savvy that would make both Democrats and Republicans envious, they declared in 1994 that they were ``nominating'' independent J. Marshall Coleman for the U.S. Senate. When Coleman won 11 percent of the vote, the Virginia Independent Party qualified for a rare concession from the State Board of Elections - an automatic spot on the state's ballots for its candidates this fall.
No laborious petition drives. Now the VIP - which over the weekend voted to add ``Reform Party'' to its name to make clear that it's the state wing of Perot's national party - can do what Democrats and Republicans do: simply mail in the names of its candidates.
This spring, small but energetic VIP branches in three congressional districts have done just that, turning three of the state's congressional races into three-way races this fall. Blacksburg engineer Tom Roberts in the 9th District, Pittsylvania County teacher Gary Thomas in the 5th District and Fairfax County airline pilot Ward Edmonds in the 8th District may have scant name recognition and resources, but each boasts an abundance of enthusiasm.
In its desire to run candidates for Congress, the Virginia branch of the Reform Party has run counter to Perot's national strategy, which has been to forgo recruiting candidates for anything except president and vice president. The Reform Party's national spokeswoman, Sharon Holman, says the party has only about a dozen congressional candidates, mostly in California, the Reformists' best-organized unit.
Instead, she says, the Reform Party's primary goal has been simply getting on the ballot - so far, it's guaranteed a spot in 13 states and is working on the rest. Still to be worked out is just when and how the party will go about nominating a presidential candidate: First there were plans for a national convention on Labor Day, now there's talk it will be moved up to August to accommodate filing deadlines in some states, such as Virginia.
The top-down strategy and the uncertainty over the procedure have raised questions, Menard says, about whether Perot's true goal is to create a real third party or simply a vehicle for himself to make another presidential bid.
To hear the Virginians who gathered in Lexington, though, they're far more interested in a party than they are Perot.
``The only people I've heard floating Perot's name are the press,'' said Roberts, the party's 9th District candidate. ``I'm glad Perot is still in the movement, but I don't think he'll be the candidate. We're more concerned about the message than the candidate.''
That message is the same one Perot hammered on in 1992 - America has too much national debt and too few manufacturing jobs.
``I believe our government is selling jobs to overseas multinational corporations,'' complained Bedford County contractor Bill Huff. ``We hear all the politicians say we are the global leaders, we have global responsibilities, but how can we maintain that if we don't have a manufacturing base?''
For a gathering where so many conventioneers were retirees, this was a decidedly futuristic bunch. ``I'm basically here for my children and grandchildren,'' Huff said. ``I can't see how my grandchildren will pay a 75 to 80 percent tax rate,'' which is what he fears will be needed to retire the national debt.
Others are simply frustrated by what they see as ``the mess'' in Washington. ``The special-interest lobbies write all the laws,'' said Edmonds, the party's 8th District candidate. For those Reformists, term limits and campaign finance reform are the key talking points.
Many conventioneers believe a candidate other than Perot might emerge to carry their message - nearly all expressed interest in former Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, a Democrat who recently told the Reform Party's California convention that he might want to run as the party's nominee.
``I think in the next two months, we'll see even more people step forward,'' Edmonds said.
Rather than representing the last gasp of the Perot movement, the party activists who met in Lexington are convinced they are on the verge of remaking American politics.
``I don't think a large segment of the population realizes there is a third party out there,'' Roberts said. ``Come September, there will be a lot of enthusiasm generated as a result of the convention.''
KEYWORDS: THIRD PARTY by CNB