USA: UPDATE 1-Reform Party convention could turn into brawl.
By Alan Elsner, Reuters

06/19/2000 Reuters English News Service © Reuters Limited 2000.

WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - If you are looking for drama and passion - and perhaps even a brawl - from one of the national political conventions this summer, the Reform Party seems the most likely to provide it. The Republican and the Democratic national conventions both promise to be
stage-managed events at which every word will be scripted and every image planned well in advance to produce the most pleasing television pictures. But the Reform Party meeting, scheduled for Aug. 10-13 in Long Beach, California, seems likely to produce a passionate clash between supporters of
fiery conservative Pat Buchanan and the stalwarts who supported party founder Ross Perot in his 1992 and 1996 presidential bids. "There may well be a brawl on the convention floor. It's a real possibility.
That's what happens when you let brown shirts into your party," said Jim Mangia, the party's national secretary, who is aghast at what he views as a right-wing takeover of the party by Buchanan.
That may be extreme language but there is a precedent. A Reform Party meeting in Nashville in December 1999 degenerated into an unseemly shoving match between delegates and police had to be called to restore order. More recently, some Reform Party state conventions have also turned unruly,
as Buchanan supporters succeeded in wresting control from the original party leaders.
Buchanan, an outspoken opponent of abortion rights and of free-trade agreements, ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996, attracting considerable support before losing both times. He left the Republican Party in 1999 to seek the Reform nomination. Adding to the general disarray in the party, Lenora Fulani , a maverick left-wing politician who had become an unlikely political ally of Buchanan, quit her position as co-chair of his presidential campaign on Monday,
accusing him of trying to change the fundamental character of the Reform Party. "Many in the party are now upset and unhappy with you and your campaign," Fulani wrote to Buchanan. "You shaped your actual campaign, both inside and outside the party, to appeal to a narrow constituency in ways that increasingly excluded me, my adherents inside the party and the base to which I relate," she said.
There is much at stake at the Long Beach convention that is supposed to confirm the party's 2000 presidential candidate, who will be decided by mail-in ballot, as well as selecting his vice presidential running mate. The candidate will have access to $12.5 million in federal government campaign
funds. But under party rules, a two-thirds majority at the convention could also overturn the result of the ballot, raising the possibility that pro-Buchanan forces, who are likely to form a majority, could nominate him whatever the outcome of the mail-in balloting. In a recent interview with Reuters, Buchanan said he was close to controlling the convention. "If you get 400 delegates, and you've got them solidly committed to you on every issue, you can pretty much determine the outcome of the convention. We're approaching half - getting close to 300 ... We're in very good shape in delegates but we're keeping at it," he said. Perot, a Texas billionaire, founded the Reform Party after his 1992
presidential run in which he garnered 19 percent of the popular vote. He won less than half that in 1996 and has taken little part in proceedings this year. Meanwhile the party has fractured several times. Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, the party's highest elected official, walked out after his faction
lost control in late 1999. Anti-Buchanan forces scrambled for a candidate to oppose the former columnist and television pundit and have finally settled on John Hagelin, a physicist and head of the "Natural Law Party" who believes in "harnessing the managing intelligence of Nature to harmonise the diverse tendencies and needs of Americans." One problem Hagelin faces is that the mail-in balloting system put in place by the Reform Party seems confusing and disorganized and potentially open to
abuse. The party intends to send voting forms to anyone who signed a petition to gain election ballot access for the Reform Party in their own state in addition to those listed as Reform Party members. Any other individual wanting to vote can also request a ballot by July 5. However when a Reuters reporter requested by telephone a ballot from the Maryland coordinator of the Reform Party, his several calls went unanswered. Hagelin's spokesman, Bob Roth, said Hagelin had a chance to beat Buchanan
but, "only if it is a fair and open election and people have access to the ballot." He called that a "big if."
Mangia said Buchanan was trying to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, an allegation Buchanan denies. "It's clear he's not running for president so much as trying to take over the
Reform Party and turn it into a right-wing fund-raising organisation. He's driving a pitchfork through the heart of the Reform Party," said Mangia.