Buchanan Vote May End Reform Party

By JONATHAN D. SALANT - The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - A badly divided Reform Party finished the presidential campaign with its top issues taken by other candidates and presidential nominee Pat Buchanan unable to attract much support or attention.

The topics that initially defined the party - balancing the budget, overhauling campaign finance laws, opposition to free trade - were picked up by others in the presidential race. The party's founder and two-time presidential nominee, Ross Perot, sat on the sidelines.

Polls leading up to Election Day gave Buchanan 1 percent or less of the vote, well below the 5 percent threshold required for the Reform Party's 2004 nominee to receive federal funds.

Buchanan drove himself and his wife Shelley to the polls at a high school in northern Virginia on Tuesday.

``We're closing but not fast enough,'' he deadpanned when asked for his assessment of the race.

Asked if he would stay with the Reform Party, he said, ``I'm going to stay with the causes I believe in. After the election we're going to have to review where we are and where we're going.''

``The Reform Party is now traveling a well-trod path in American politics, down the road to oblivion,'' said John Kenneth White, a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.

``What third parties need to survive and thrive are two things. They need a charismatic candidate and they need a set of compelling issues,'' he said. Today, the Reform Party has neither, White said.

Perot endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president. The budget is balanced. Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader campaigned against free trade and for overhauling the campaign finance laws, two of Perot's signature issues.

Without Perot, the party split over Buchanan, an anti-abortion conservative who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000.

Buchanan's candidacy attracted little attention, leading him to wonder whether a third-party nomination was the best vehicle for his ideas.

He said, ``I've been able to influence, I think, over my career of 35 years, a lot of policies and a lot of decisions. But this does not appear to be the best format to do it.''

Still, Reform Party chairman Gerry Moan said Buchanan brought in new people to the party.

``I think our demographics have gotten younger, bolder, more conservative, and we're going to have to build upon that coalition,'' Moan said.

But those who left over Buchanan's candidacy question whether the party is worth saving.

``Its a brand name,'' former chairman Russell Verney said. ``If the brand name gets tarnished, you may have to step away from it.''

Indeed, Nader, who ran on such traditional Reform Party issues as campaign finance reform and trade, may wind up being Perot's heir, suggested Jim Mangia, the party's founding national secretary.

``If his independent movement is going to grow, he's going to have to reach out to those center forces,'' Mangia said. ``Is there room for the radical center in Nader's movement? Those of us who are left standing will be coalescing and discussing what we're going to do from here.''

``The real foundation is the 530,000 municipal, county and state elected officials,'' Verney said. ``Rather than a national party, it's more important to have 50 state political parties and focus on the fundamentals. If and when a competitive national candidate comes along that can unify the 50 state
parties, we have the support system in place to assist that campaign.''