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Subject: Perot Campaign, Relishing Gains, to Set Up Formal Advocacy Group<By Michael
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 92 05:01:45 EST
Message-ID: <39.1992Nov5.050145@AmeriCast.com>

Perot Campaign, Relishing Gains, to Set Up Formal Advocacy
Group<By Michael Isikoff and John Mintz=Washington Post Staff
Writers=

Leaders of Ross Perot's campaign, savoring what they called a
"phenomenal" showing for an independent candidacy, said yesterday
that they will quickly set up a formal political advocacy organi-
zation that may evolve into a permanent new political party.

"The common question is, 'Are we going to keep this thing going?'
" said Orson Swindle, one of Perot's chief campaign spokesmen and
executive director of his fledgling political group, United We
Stand, America. "In all candor, there's no way we can stop it."

Speaking to reporters in Dallas, Swindle said he will begin this
week transforming the group into a legally incorporated, dues-
paying organization that, with Perot's support, would push for
deficit reduction, job creation and other causes that the Texas
billionaire has advocated.

Noting that Perot had captured 18 million votes, the strongest
showing by an independent in 80 years, Swindle said, "I think the
basis for a third party is there if the group wants to pursue
that." Leaders of Perot's volunteer state organizations national-
ly also said they want to remain active and perhaps form a party.

"We need to stay together," said Stephen Bost, Perot's coordina-
tor in Maine, the state in which Perot did best on Election Day,
receiving 30 percent of the popular vote.

Perot's 192,000 votes there almost surpassed President Bush's
vote count, and the billionaire apparently was helped by Maine
voters' tradition of favoring independents. James Longley won its
governorship as an independent in 1974.  "It looks like the mak-
ings of a third party or at least a watchdog coalition," said
John DeMotte, a Perot campaign leader in Idaho, where Perot re-
ceived 28 percent of the vote, almost surpassing President-elect
Clinton's total.  "People here are scared, mad and anxious."

In addition, Perot won 29 percent of the vote in Utah, surpassing
Clinton there; 28 percent in Alaska; 27 percent each in Kansas
and Nevada; 26 percent each in Montana and Wyoming, and 25 per-
cent in Oregon. He won 24 percent in each of four states, and 23
percent in each of seven. Nationwide, he had 19 percent after
late polls had said he was supported by 16 percent of voters.

Perot remained secluded yesterday, but aides described him as
"jubilant" at his showing. He surpassed all independent presiden-
tial election showings in this century except for the 1912 vote,
in which Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive (or "Bull Moose") Party
received 27 percent of the total.

One of the group's emerging leaders - attorney R. Clayton Mul-
ford, Perot's son-in-law and campaign general counsel - hinted
that it may break quickly with Clinton if the president-elect
does not move to cut the deficit.

In his concession speech Tuesday night, Perot urged supporters to
"work with the new administration" to address the nation's
economic problems.

Mulford said he is "a little bit pessimistic" that Clinton will
tackle the deficit. He added that top Perot aides are "fearful"
that a Clinton attempt to jump-start the economy with jobs pro-
grams early next year would add to the deficit without addressing
long-term economic woes.  "If the deficit continues to grow as a
proportion of gross national income, we have a problem," Mulford
said.

Toward the end of the campaign, Mulford, 36, emerged as one of
Perot's few advisers and his campaign manager.

Perot's performance was boosted by an unprecedented, self-
financed advertising blitz in which he outspent both parties in
the last month. Mulford said Perot spent more than the $60 mil-
lion that the candidate had estimated.

Perot aides were vague about what form a Perot group might take
but hinted that it could field candidates in 1994 or restrict it-
self to being a political action committee that donates money to
candidates.

Another unanswered question is what role Perot might play. Swin-
dle said he believes that Perot "probably" will provide "bridge"
financing to get the group started.

Swindle said he hopes to reach out to Connecticut Gov. Lowell
Weicker, a political independent who also has discussed creating
a third party, and to groups such as the Concord Coalition, a
deficit-battling organization established by retiring Sen. Warren
B. Rudman (R-N.H.) and former senator Paul E. Tsongas (D-Mass.).

"I don't expect the two groups would have a formal link," said
Martha Phillips, executive director of the Concord Coalition,
formed in September. "We see the two as being on parallel
tracks."

Perot critics said he may have a hard time maintaining the group,
because its supporters come from both parties, spanning views
ranging from conservative to liberal, and agree only that Perot
should lead them.  Theodore J. Lowi, a professor of government at
Cornell University and an expert on third parties, said he is
trying to reach Perot to advise him on how to establish his group
as a permanent alternative to the two parties.

Lowi said Perot's ideas about raising taxes and "shared sacri-
fice" could serve to bind his followers. But Lowi said Perot must
subordinate himself, nurture growth of state affiliates and en-
sure that his aides from Dallas do not bully state volunteers, as
many volunteers said happened during the campaign.  "Somebody
from Dallas was always telling them what to do," Lowi said.
"Perot's got some fence-mending to do."

If Perot's group does become permanent, it likely would confront
problems that other political organizations have faced, such as
internal bickering.

In the campaign, many Perot supporters - including about 40 named
by him as his electors for voting in the electoral college - quit
his campaign after becoming angry when he left the race in July
or because of his aides' supposed heavy-handed tactics.

Gloria Borland, once a top Perot campaign official and a former
Perot elector from the District, said she left because of his
aides' "military style of operating" and "promises broken."<02:31
11-05C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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