Cliche has it that the Reform party is a car looking for a driver. But with over $ 12 million in federal campaign funds at its disposal for the 2000 election, the party's more like an airplane looking for a hijacker. And according to reports last week, Pat Buchanan might be fishing out his ski mask.
Though one high-placed campaign source told THE SCRAPBOOK the chances of Buchanan's running for the Reform nomination "are 50/50 at best," an inordinate amount of trial-ballooning sure is going on. Bay Buchanan, Pat's sister and campaign manager, told Reuters, "He is seriously considering this, but he won't have a decision anytime soon." Meanwhile, former Reform party vice-presidential candidate Pat Choate, a Ross Perot spear-carrier and Buchanan-family intimate, has been preparing the way. For the past few months, Choate's been working over Reform state chairs, about half of whom he says already support a Buchanan candidacy. Other Buchanan partisans, like William von Raab, who co-chaired Buchanan's '92 campaign, managed to arm-twist nearly a third of the delegates at July's Reform party convention into signing a pledge for Buchanan.
Perot and Russ Verney, the party's soon-to-be-departing chairman, are maintaining their public neutrality (though tears would be scarce if Buchanan, whom Perot rival Jesse Ventura opposes, captured the nomination). Verney, in fact, has a tough time hiding his enthusiasm for Buchanan. Of all the vanity candidates, from Warren Beatty to Donald Trump, who have been playing footsie with the Reformers, Verney says, "Buchanan is the only one I see who could say, with a straight face, 'I endorse what the Reform party stands for.'"
Buchanan is also well suited to manipulate Reform's nomination process. To win the nomination, candidates must individually petition for ballot access as independents in the 30 states that don't have Reform party lines on their ballots. Choate estimates this will cost "two to three million bucks -- a cheap entry fee." Buchanan has raised $ 2.4 million (about $ 2.1 million of which comes from the Buchanan Brigades, small donors who give less than $ 200). With his devout following and new Reform party support, Buchanan should have little problem capturing the prize of $ 12.6 million in federal general-election matching funds (thanks to Perot's better-than-5-percent showing in the 1996 race), not to mention primary matching funds, of which Buchanan is already entitled to a couple of million.
As for votes, the Reform party actually encourages candidates to put the fix in: Anybody can vote in a Reform party primary. With telephone, Internet, and mail-in ballots available on request, Buchanan organizers can simply convert his extensive mailing lists, which number in the tens of thousands, into a ballot drive, which could help Buchanan sew up the nomination. "Can a candidate stuff it? Yes!" Verney says, dizzily. "We hope we have six candidates out there trying to stuff it. I want everybody in this party." Verney may just get his wish. But right now, if Buchanan wants it, and it seems he does, he could be on 50 election ballots come next fall.