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The Reform Party of the United States of America (abbreviated '''Reform Party USA''' or '''RPUSA''', generally known simply as the '''Reform Party''') is a Political Party in the United States , founded by Ross Perot in 1995 who said Americans were disillusioned with the state of politics – as being corrupt and unable to deal with vital issues – and desired a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. Its biggest victory came when Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota in 1998. Since then, the party has been fraught with infighting. HISTORY The Party grew out of Perot's efforts in the 1992 Presidential Election , where – running as an independent – he became the first non-major party candidate since 1912 to have been considered viable enough to win the presidency. Perot made a splash by bringing a focus to fiscal issues such as the Federal Deficit and National Debt ; government reform issues such as Term Limits , Campaign Finance Reform , and lobbying reform; and issues on trade. A large part of his following was grounded in the belief he was addressing vital problems largely ignored by the two major parties. On these strengths, he won two of the three presidential debates and placed second in the other, according to some polls at the time. A Gallup poll showed Perot with a slim lead, but on July 16 he suspended his campaign, accusing Republican operatives of threatening to sabotage his daughter's wedding, and was accused by '' Newsweek Magazine '' of being a "Quitter" in a well-publicized cover-page article. Even after resuming his campaign on October 1 , Perot was consistently dogged by the "quitter" moniker and other allegations concerning his character, to the extent that on Election Day many voters were confused as to whether or not Perot was actually still a candidate. He ended up receiving about 18.9% of the popular vote, a record level of popularity not seen in an independent candidacy since former President Theodore Roosevelt ran on the "Bull Moose" Progressive ticket in 1912. He continued being politically involved after the election, formally turning his campaign organization ( United We Stand America ) into a lobbying group. One of his primary goals was the defeat of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) during this period. In 1994 the Republicans took control of the House Of Representatives , largely on the strength of the " Contract With America ", which recognized and promised to deal with many of the issues Perot's voters had mobilized to support in 1992. However, two of the major provisions (Constitutional amendments for term limits and the balanced budgets) failed to secure the two-thirds congressional majorities required to take effect. The term limits amendment vote failed in the house on a 227-204-1 vote (288 votes were required); the balanced budget amendment passed in the House of Representatives, but failed by two votes in the senate. (Sen. Dole voted against the amendment on procedural grounds when it became apparent that it was going to fail; by voting no he could attempt to bring it up again at a later date. A second vote on the amendment in the Senate in 1997 failed by one vote in a 66-34 split.) Dissatisfied, the grassroots organizations which had made Perot's 1992 candidacy possible began to band together to found a third party intended to rival the Republicans and Democrats. For legal reasons, the party ended up being called the "Reform Party" ("Independent Party" was preferred, but already taken, as were several variants on the name). A drive to get the party on the ballot in all fifty states succeeded, although it ended up with lawsuits in some regions over state Ballot Access requirements. In a few areas, minor parties became incorporated as state party organizations. When the 1996 Election Season arrived, Perot at first held off from entering the contest for the Reform Party's nomination, calling for others to try for the ticket. The only person who announced such an intention was Dick Lamm , former Governor of Colorado . After the Federal Election Commission indicated only Perot and not Lamm would be able to secure federal matching funds – because his 1992 campaign was as an independent – Perot entered the race. Some were upset that Perot changed his mind and in their view overshadowed Lamm's run for the party nomination. This built up to the beginning of a splinter within the movement when it was alleged certain problems in the primary process, such as many Lamm supporters not receiving ballots, and some primary voters receiving multiple ballots, were Perot's doing. The Reform Party claimed these problems stemmed from the petition process for getting the Reform Party on the ballot in all of the states, since the party claimed they used the names and addresses of petition signers as the basis of who received ballots. Primary ballots were sent by mail to designated voters. Eventually, Perot was nominated and he chose economist Pat Choate as his vice-presidential candidate. Between 1992 and 1996, the Federal Election Commission changed its rules regarding how candidates could qualify to participate in the presidential debates. As Perot had previously done very well in debates, it was a decisive blow to the campaign when the FEC ruled that he could not participate on basis of somewhat vague criteria --- such as that a candidate was required to have already been endorsed by "a substantial number of major news organizations", with "substantial" being a number to be decided by the FEC on a case-by-case basis. Perot could not have qualified for the debates in 1992 under these rules, and was able to show that various famous US Presidents would likewise have been excluded from modern debate by the FEC. Despite legal action by the Perot team, and an 80% majority of Americans supporting his participation in the debates, the FEC refused to budge and Perot was reduced to making his points heard via a series of half-hour "commercials" that most Americans channel-surfed past. In the end, Perot and Choate won 8% of the vote. By 1997, factional disputes began to emerge with the departure of a small group that believed Perot had rigged the 1996 party primary to defeat Lamm. These individuals eventually established the American Reform Party . During this time, Perot himself chose to leave the party to its own devices, concentrating on lobbying efforts through United We Stand America . Mid-term elections of 1998 In 1998, the Reform Party received a boost when Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota, the highest office win for a national third party since the beginning of the century. According to the Women's League of Voters, Reform candidates obtained more votes nationwide in 1998 than did any other third party in America, even without those garnered by Ventura. Counting Ventura's performance, Reformers took in more votes than all other third parties in the United States ''combined'', establishing the Reform Party as America's third largest party. This was a particularly impressive feat when one considers that none of Perot's money, influence or organization was involved in any of the candidacies, including Ventura's. The party was operating entirely on its own resources, and had in fact run fewer candidates with less money than the next-most-popular party, the Libertarians . Presidential election of 2000
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