Earth To Reform Party
A schismatic convention leads to one big question: What happens
to the federal campaign funds?
BY TAMALA M. EDWARDS
It was easy when the Bush-Cheney team did it. On Aug. 4, lawyers
from the G.O.P. ticket walked into the Washington offices of the
Federal Election Commission and filed their papers certifying
that George W. Bush was indeed the party's nominee. In a couple
of hours, $67.5 million in federal funds was wired to the
Bush-Cheney campaign.
Life isn't so simple, of course, for the Reform Party. The
independent movement forged by Ross Perot, which garnered nearly
a fifth of the vote in 1992, is in chaos. At its convention last
week in Long Beach, Calif., there were shoving matches and a
major split. One group chose former G.O.P. candidate Pat
Buchanan, while a smaller group gave its nod to John Hagelin,
physicist and transcendental-meditation advocate. (One sign at
the convention: NOMINATE JIMMY CARTER TO UNITE THE REFORM PARTY.)
Each claims the nomination and $12.5 million in federal funds,
which leads to one question: After the schism, what happens to
the money?
It's up to the FEC to figure out who gets the dough. Since the
money goes to the candidate, the commission must decide who is
the Real Reform Nominee. It won't be easy. The FEC has never
faced anything like this. Its first task: determine who followed
the party's own nominating rules. That remains in
dispute--naturally--since Hagelin forces have accused Buchanan of
massive vote fraud. Hagelin supporters sent the FEC a six-page
complaint, compiled an inch-thick sheaf of alleged evidence and
were barely able to break for meals and their twice-daily TM
rituals. "There has been a destructive process in the Reform
Party for the past six months," Hagelin told TIME. Whoever gets
the FEC's blessing won't be home free. The loser will surely
challenge the decision in court. Once members of one campaign get
the money, though, it's pretty much theirs to spend as they see
fit. While the FEC requires that the money be spent on
campaign-related expenditures (and will conduct an audit after
the election), the pols have a lot of latitude. "They're not
going to try to cogitate for the campaign what is and isn't a
legitimate expense," says Ken Gross, a Washington attorney who
practices election law.
For his part, Buchanan is keeping a brave face. "This Reform
Party skirmish is over," he said, perhaps optimistically. "It's
on to November." At the convention he surprised nearly everyone
by choosing a black woman as his running mate. Ezola Foster, a
former Los Angeles schoolteacher, seemed the antidote to
accusations that Buchanan isn't inclusive. And it also seemed
right for this Summer of Love as the G.O.P. reaches out to
minorities and Al Gore broke barriers by picking Joe Lieberman.
But upon closer inspection, it was hard to see how the
all-but-unheard-of Foster could energize Buchanan's somnolent
campaign, which has barely managed to get north of 1% support in
the polls. She mirrors Buchanan's hard-line positions on
immigration and social issues and is active in the far-right John
Birch Society, which touts her as one of its speakers. Indeed,
Foster's rants, calling schools "Marxist training camps,"
probably won't penetrate Bush's strong center-right coalition.
But the pick of a black female Bircher seems fitting--the
perfectly weird coda to the Reform Party's weird year. --By
Matthew Cooper. With reporting by Jeffrey Ressner/Long Beach
|