The Oakland Tribune Thursday, July 13, 2000

Buchanan gets rival for Reform Party nod

By Josh RichmanSTAFF WRITER

SAN FRANCISCO -- A soft-spoken quantumphysicist from Iowa picked up Reform Party presidential endorsements and leveled new complaints Wednesday to advance as conservative commentator
Patrick Buchanan's political nightmare.

John Hagelin, making his third consecutive presidential bid on the Natural Law ticket, also seeks the splintered party's nomination this year. Buchanan sought the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996 but left the GOP in October to seek the Reform nod, apparently hoping his widely known name would make him a shoo-in.

Now, Hagelin is parlaying an anti-conservative, anti-Buchanan backlash into a tighterthan-expected race for the third-party nomination and $12.6 million in federal campaign money that comes with it.

California and New York are expected to provide a huge share of voters in the Reform primary, a five-week, mail-in vote ending Aug. 9. New York party leaders endorsed Hagelin last week, and Bay Area party leaders did the same Wednesday at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel on Union Square.

Reform Party San Francisco County Council Chairwoman Joyce Dattner called the Buchanan-Hagelin race "a referendum on the kind of party we'll be," and said Hagelin embodies the principles of "inclusion, diversity, democracy and humanism" on which the party was founded.

Hagelin and national party secretary Jim Mangia of Los Angeles -- who endorsed Hagelin on Wednesday -- also used the event to complain of more internal party strife.

They said Buchanan has submitted to party leaders a list of more than 400,000 voters to whom he wants primary ballots sent.

That list is being kept secret under a deal Buchanan struck with Michael Farris of Thousand Oaks, the party's presidential nominating committee chairman.

Hagelin and Mangia said withholding the list prevents verification that the names on it are those of valid Reform voters. Hagelin said he suspects it has been "salted" with Republican Buchanan backers.

Hagelin has threatened to sue for release of the names, if necessary. Farris said Wednesday he regrets signing the deal, but did so because he agreed the potentially valuable list shouldn't fall into the hands of political operatives outside the party.

"But as far as ensuring fairness within the Reform Party primary, allowing candidates to mail information to the primary voters is part of the fairness," he said.

He said Buchanan's camp verbally rejected his request that Hagelin be given the list so he can use it for mailings: "I believe Buchanan's people see the current situation as holding an advantage for them and they don't want to give it up."

The Buchanan campaign didn't return a call Wednesday.

In an interview before the news conference, Hagelin said a recent burst of media attention has brought him more Web site hits and campaign donations.

Polls show neither he nor Buchanan has a chance to defeat Democrat Al Gore or Republican George W. Bush, but Hagelin said using $12.6 million in federal matching funds to publicize his message and push major parties to adopt parts of his platform would be enough.

"A graceful way to die in independent politics is to be co-opted -- it's a perfectly noble way to have accomplished one's mission," he said.

Still, he cited Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's Reform-ticket election as proof that third-party candidates can prevail: "Jesse Ventura went from nowhere to victory in three weeks. We have more than four months left -- anything is possible."

Hagelin doesn't fear draining votes from Gore, as Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader seems to be doing. Bush and Gore are owned by the same special interests, he said, and he's reaching out to former Republicans and former Democrats alike. Still, he acknowledged that he and Gore will vie
for some Golden State votes.

"I would welcome Al Gore's withdrawal from the race," he said dryly. "He is eating into my support base."

Founded in the United States in 1992, the Natural Law party looks to common sense and scientifically proven principles to solve society's problems.

Hagelin, for example, calls for education reform based on research into children's development; prevention-oriented health care; sustainable agriculture without chemical fertilizers and pesticides; campaign finance reform including elimination of political action committees; and a moratorium
on genetically engineered food.

Crime should be fought by improving education and rehabilitating criminals, he says, and government should play no role in issues of abortion or homosexual marriage.