Reform Party Goes to Buchanan Allies; Backers Win Vote for Control, but Opponents Walk Out, Threaten to Sue Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Reform Party Goes to Buchanan Allies; Backers Win Vote for Control, but Opponents Walk Out, Threaten to Sue Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
08/09/2000
The Washington Post FINAL
Copyright 2000, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved
LONG BEACH, Calif., Aug. 8 -- Backers of Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential campaign today gained control of the Reform Party apparatus in a closed national committee meeting.
As local police broke up a pushing and shoving match, Buchanan's opponents marched out of the meeting to hold their own "national committee" session two blocks away, saying they were crushed illegally and threatening to sue.
But Buchanan's success increases the likelihood that he will win the Reform Party nomination and the federal funds that go with it.
"It's over now," declared Angela "Bay" Buchanan, the candidate's sister and chief strategist, in a briefing after the walkout. "It is Pat Buchanan's nomination. They needed to win in there, and they did not have the numbers. We've won fair and square."
A Buchanan victory, if sustained over almost certain legal challenges, would significantly change the centrist party that grew out of Ross Perot's 1992 presidential bid.
Under Perot, the party pointedly avoided taking stands on controversial social issues, and many of those who voted for Perot held libertarian views on questions of abortion and sexual morality. But Buchanan holds hard-right positions on many social issues: He opposes gay rights, abortion and what he calls the "Israeli lobby."
Bay Buchanan charged that her brother's adversaries, led by Reform secretary Jim Mangia, are "a handful of dissidents who refused to accept the fact that Pat Buchanan beat them fair and square in state convention after state convention across the country."
Mangia, who led the walkout of about 35 people and then called a separate, rump national committee meeting in a hotel two blocks away, told reporters: "We have discovered widespread fraud beyond what we have already reported, and we will announce a federal lawsuit tomorrow against Buchanan personally and against his campaign for triple damages according to federal statute."
He said the Buchanan opponents, many of whom are supporting Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin, a physicist who practices transcendental meditation, will attempt to conduct a counterconvention: "I think what you are seeing is two separate tracks and two separate conventions."
Mangia said that in preparation for a Buchanan takeover, he and others reserved a meeting room in the same Long Beach center where delegates will convene Thursday. Bay Buchanan said her brother has chosen a running mate, but she declined to identify the person.
This afternoon, the "regular" and "rump" national committees met separately. The 115 members of the regular committee who were present renounced the decision of the anti-Buchanan members of the 164-member committee to disqualify Buchanan's candidacy and affirmed the appointment of a disputed credentials committee chairman who is expected to rule in favor of Buchanan. The rump group did
just the opposite.
Reform Party Chairman Gerald Moan, who has taken Buchanan's side on the procedural issues, declared that Mangia and his allies are on a futile mission. "There will be no hijacking of the Reform Party," he said. "I'm the convention chairman recognized by the Federal Election Commission. I'm the chairman recognized by the FEC. And I will certify who the candidate is from this party." The FEC will award the Reform nominee $12.6 million.
Although Mangia and others contended that they have a legal claim to the party and the nomination process, others in the anti-Buchanan wing of the Reform Party were less optimistic about their prospects.
Lenora Fulani, a Marxist who for a time was allied with Buchanan in one of the stranger political marriages in American history, said, "Pat has dealt himself out. Even if he wins everything at this convention, he is going against the grain of what the American people want."
Charles Collins, a Buchanan opponent from Georgia, said the strategy of trying to conduct a "separate" convention would fail. Buchanan will be the de facto winner "if we don't come back over here tomorrow and become a part of this convention and challenge everything they have done," Collins said.
During the closed national committee meeting, Mangia and fellow anti-Buchanan leaders sought to gain control by using a strategy of challenging the credentials of a large number of pro-Buchanan national committee members. In Mangia's view, party rules prohibited challenged committee members from voting, and there was an anti-Buchanan majority among the few unchallenged delegates.
If successful, this tactic would have given Mangia and his allies full control, but Moan, the party chairman, ruled against the Mangia strategy, declaring that every committee member could vote on every challenge--except the one against the member's own credentials.
This move shifted majority power back to Buchanan's allies, and as soon as it was confirmed in the first credentials vote, Mangia walked out.
"We will convene the national committee at the Renaissance Hotel," Mangia shouted as he marched out of the Westin. Then, raising his voice in an attempt to drown out the Buchananites chanting, "Go, Pat, go! Go, Pat, go!" Mangia screamed, "Democracy! Democracy! Democracy!"
