Reform Party Draws Few Students

Brad L. Davis '00 was a conservative Republican. Kyle D. Hawkins '02 also had Republican leanings. But both were unsatisfied with traditional party politics and wanted something more.

The Minnesota residents hoped to find a better forum than the current two-party system and were attracted to the Reform Party.

But after nearly a decade, the third option in the political spectrum has yet to convert unsatisfied voters, especially students, into a strong political force.

While the party initially found appeal through its idiosyncratic founder, H. Ross Perot, and was later given new life by Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, its current torchbearer, Patrick J. Buchanan, is alienating voters like Davis and Hawkins. And so the Reform Party is still struggling to gain national credibility as it attempts to break the two-party hegemony.

The Birth of a Party

In the last decade, the Reform Party has moved into the mainstream of American politics, organizing a national effort to challenge the two-party system.

In 1992, billionaire Perot ran for president under the organization "United We Stand America," spending over $60 million of his own money in the race.

After the effort, in which he drew 19 percent of the popular vote, Perot and his supporters organized the Reform Party, focused on such issues as balancing the budget, reforming campaign finance and election laws and protecting American jobs.

Supporters of the party complain the Democrats and Republicans are too similar to get any true reforms done, creating the need for a third party.

"Citizens should be attracted to [the Reform Party] especially in times like these where the two governing political parties are basically carbon copies of each other," writes National Reform Party Vice Chair Gerry Moan in an e-mail message.

In 1996, Perot ran under the banner of the Reform Party against President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole, drawing less than nine percent of the vote. But the showing was good enough to secure federal matching funds for the Reform Party candidate in the 2000 election.

Wrestle Mania

In 1998, former wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura captured the Reform Party spotlight by winning the Minnesota governorship, the first high profile election victory for the party.

Hawkins, who is also a Crimson editor, says Ventura's election got him interested in the Reform Party. Hawkins spent last summer working in Ventura's Minnesota state capital offices.

"The two parties have proved that they make pretenses at real government reform and don't do much when elected," Hawkins says. "I don't see how anyone can trust them to do any true reforms. "

Davis agrees with Hawkins, saying the two existing parties weren't addressing important issues.

Davis and Hawkins discussed the formation of a Reform Party Club at Harvard earlier last fall, although they knew no one else who supported the movement.

"I have always been a life long Republican," Davis says. "But the Republicans, or the Democrats for that matter, weren't engaging in discussion of the issues important to this country."

United We Stand?

But while both Davis and Hawkins' disillusionment drew them to the Reform Party, the political infighting between Perot and Ventura factions over the last two months has forced them to question the party's credibility.

In February, Ventura left the party, citing organizational and leadership problems. In an open letter to the citizens of Minnesota, he wrote, "I have come to believe that the national Reform Party is hopelessly dysfunctional. It is unworthy of my support and the support of the American people."

Soon after, National Reform Party Chair Jack Gargan, a Ventura supporter, was ousted from his leadership position at a Tennessee meeting where scuffles broke out between members on the meeting floor. Gargan was replaced by Perot's former vice presidential running mate Pat Choate.

Moan says he believes the divisions have been blown out of proportion.

"Reports of our demise are greatly exaggerated," Moan says. "The infighting was more infrastructure than anything else."

National College Reform Party (NCRP) member Jared M. Rhoads says he believes the divisions hurt the party, but are sometimes necessary in the beginning stages of a movement.

Rhoads is a sophomore at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and serves as the New England Regional Representative of the NCRP.

"Everybody recognizes the great potential of the Reform party, and since the party is in its infancy, we have lots of different people trying to mold it to their own ideologies or add a little extra feature here or there," Rhoads writes in an e-mail message. "We aren't just a bunch of blind followers, so every little thing gets contested."

Rhoads recognizes some of the problems have come from the struggle for leadership, but says the infighting has to stop in order for the party to remain a credible force.

"Part of the infighting is due to conflicting egos, but most of it is just because we are all so passionate about political reform," he writes. "It's healthy in some way, but I think it has to stop. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, really, whenever we come across as disorganized or a circus."

"This kind of scuffle is great to keep the fire burning in non-election years, but now more than ever is the time to present ourselves respectably," he adds.

Go, Pat, Go?

While Buchanan appears to be the likely Reform nominee, his selection is alienating moderate voters--especially the student base which has always been attracted to the Reform Party.

While the Reform Party website currently lists 11 candidates for its party nomination, Buchanan--who finished second in the 1996 Republican primary--is the only one to begin the process of securing ballot access for the presidential election.

But he is far from solidifying student support, especially at Harvard.

"The Pat Buchanan wing is socially conservative and doesn't really appeal to young voters," Davis says. "If he is their candidate, he would probably get no support here at Harvard."

And supporters of Ventura say Buchanan's controversial views do not fit in with the party's socially moderate base.

"Buchanan is fiscally liberal and socially conservative, which is the opposite of Ventura," Hawkins says.

But party faithful take the opposite view, saying Ventura's views were not truly representative of the national party.

"Ventura's centrist themes scared away people that were seeking to join us because they thought we were changing from our principles that made us attractive to them," Moan says.

Buchanan spoke at Harvard last week, often receiving boos and hisses from the crowd for statements he made in the past regarding immigration, homosexuality, women's issues and the Holocaust.

But Rhoads says he thinks the labels attached to Buchanan have been completely unfounded.

"It's reminiscent of a grade-school word-fight," he says. "It's just unsubstantiated name-calling."

Rock the Vote?

Lenora Fulani, a prominent reform party member and Buchanan supporter, does not believe supporters have to agree with all of Buchanan's views to support the Reform Party.

"I have no interest in a campaign based on social conservatism," Fulani says. "I think Pat's a populist and I am interested in his base."

Fulani says she feels Buchanan can be accommodating to an array of voters, and she stresses the importance of the youth vote.

"Young people are right now at the base of the support that we would like to be able to reach out to," Fulani says. "[They] are not as connected with the two party establishment."

But while the college Reform Party organization will be actively campaigning cross-country this summer for the student vote, canvassing county fairs and parades, it might be a lost cause.

Hawkins says he believes Buchanan is too much of a political establishment figure to be elected.

"For a third party to be attractive to people, a person would do better if he an outside of the beltway figure," Hawkins says. "People don't associate [Buchanan] with anything but politics."

And Davis says Buchanan's right-wing views may scare off voters.

"Buchanan can be very eloquent and intelligent, but he is also very divisive," he says. "He has a lot of baggage."

Ultimately, both Hawkins and Davis, enamored with the concept of a third political party, have come away unfulfilled.

"I see two problems with the Reform Party," Hawkins says. "There are serious conflicts of interests and they really don't have one standard ideology."

The Long Haul

But no matter who the Reform Party presidential candidate is, they will face an uphill battle in their quest for the presidency. Several logistical roadblocks as well as psychological barriers stand in the way of the success of the party.

Professor Andrea Campbell, who teaches Government 1352: "Campaigns and Elections," says there are many restrictions that limit third parties.

The most convincing argument against third parties is "the wasted vote" theory. Because of the single member plurality system used in the United States, the only way a candidate can get any electoral college votes is by winning a majority of votes in a state.

"Unless you have a geographical concentration of voters, a third party candidate won't get any electoral college votes," Campbell says.

Ross Perot, who won 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992, did not receive any electoral college votes.

Campbell says citizens usually do not vote for a candidate who they believe has little chance of winning.

"It can be a vote to express an opinion, or a protest vote, but it will not likely be for a winner," Campbell says.

And Buchanan has more concrete struggles to worry about.

Buchanan is currently trying to lower the threshold of 15 percent popular support needed to participate in fall presidential debates.

"The commission set such a high threshold in '96, in part to keep Perot out of the debates," Campbell says.

But even if Buchanan can gain a national forum, Campbell dismisses his chances as the Reform Party candidate.

"He's a known quantity," she says, citing his two previous Republican primary defeats. "He's already showed he's a flawed candidate. His star has lost a little bit of his shine."