From the December 2012 Ballot Access News by Richard Winger:
The Crusader: The Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan, by Timothy Stanley, 455 pages, 2012.
The author is a historian at Oxford University who specializes in U.S. history. His biography of Pat Buchanan includes three chapters on Buchanan’s experience winning the Reform Party presidential nomination in 2000, and running as its nominee. There are so few books about the Reform Party, especially its history after 1996, that this book is valuable. Also, the author is a talented writer, and the book is so interesting it is hard to put it down.
Unfortunately, the book’s chapters on the Reform Party are not well researched. For those chapters, the author depended on his extensive interviews with Pat and Bay Buchanan, plus articles in the New York Times and the Washington Post. He did not interview leaders of the Reform Party nor of the Natural Law Party. One chapter is “Pat Buchanan vs. the Flying Buddhists.” This is a reference to Buchanan’s struggle with John Hagelin, leader of the Natural Law Party, for the nomination of the Reform Party. “Flying Buddhists” is inaccurate as a nickname for the Transcendental Movement created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the world’s Natural Law Parties. It is true that the TM movement practiced yogic flying but to the extent TM has religious roots, they are Hindu, not Buddhist.
Also the author didn’t understand the process by which candidates for the Reform nomination were supposed to qualify. He says candidates were obliged to get signatures from all 50 states, and then the people who signed those ballot access petitions would automatically receive a mail ballot to let them help choose the Reform Party nominee. Actually, the Reform Party was already on the ballot in 1999 in 21 states, and the candidates were expected to collect signatures only in the other 29 states, not all 50 states.
28 responses so far ↓
1 Dennis // Jan 4, 2013 at 6:53 pm
Whether or not I will read this book hinges largely on Richard’s opinion of it.
2 Krzysztof Lesiak // Jan 4, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Pat Buchanan is awesome, all his books are amazing reads and very informative, I’m sure this biography will be a good read, as well.
3 Nick // Jan 4, 2013 at 8:21 pm
The decline of the Reform Party began with Pat Buchanon primary. It will take at least another 8 years to a decade to rebuild it.
4 Slam In A Y-Trap // Jan 4, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Good luck with that.
5 Peter J. Orvetti // Jan 5, 2013 at 1:38 am
That’s a shame. The Buchanan/Hagelin standoff was fascinating — and something I actually wrote a bit about in my otherwise-apolitical memoir “Reconciliation”, because I happened to be at the Long Beach convention.
6 Mighty Whitey // Jan 5, 2013 at 1:51 am
Pat Buchanan sold out with his VP pick.
7 Catholic Trotskyist // Jan 5, 2013 at 3:22 am
Yes Mighty, he sold out your evil cause. I disagree with him a lot, but I respect him for that.
8 johnO // Jan 5, 2013 at 8:33 am
Pat Buchanan is Pro-Life so was his pick with Foster lady. He is closer with CP not American3Position Party person.
9 Root's Teeth Are Awesome // Jan 5, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Nick @3: The decline of the Reform Party began with Pat Buchanon primary.
Not true.
The Reform Party’s decline began with Ross Perot’s second run. Check these RP vote totals…
1992 (Ross Perot) ….. 19,743,821
1996 (Ross Perot) ….. 8,085,402
2000 (Pat Buchanan) ….. 449,225
10 paulie // Jan 5, 2013 at 12:47 pm
Ross Perot did not have a “Reform Party” in 1992 (he ran independent), so Nick is correct. Of course, in 1996 the Reform Party was little more than a Perot vehicle. By 2000 it had become somewhat more, having elected a Governor and had various people compete for its presidential nomination.
11 johnO // Jan 5, 2013 at 12:54 pm
Reform members should join the Independence Party of Minn+NY. May be stronger then.
12 Krzysztof Lesiak // Jan 5, 2013 at 1:45 pm
I hope Pat leaves the GOP and joins the CP!!! that would be great. The CP like articulates his political views verbatim.
13 Krzysztof Lesiak // Jan 5, 2013 at 1:47 pm
I hope my local library stocks a copy of this book ASAP, I want to read it !!
14 NoGovNo // Jan 5, 2013 at 2:07 pm
The CP was originally created as a vehicle for Buchanan to run as a third party candidate if he ever left the Republican Party in 1992, but he stayed put. When he finally did leave, he ended up running Reform Party instead.
15 johnO // Jan 5, 2013 at 4:50 pm
14
Howard Phillips did create CP for Pat Buchanan to run in. It was strange choice to run in , at that time, Pro-Choice Reform Party. However, his sister Bay Buchanan is in the party and helped as director for Tancredo in Colorado. I haven’t heard if she returned to Republican Party. I also think she is more conservative than Mr. Buchanan is.
16 paulie // Jan 5, 2013 at 5:07 pm
Reform Party had more money, ballot access etc.
17 johnO // Jan 5, 2013 at 5:21 pm
Jesse Ventura and Pat Buchanan. That is odd couple! Ross Perot must’ve scratched his head and said what happened to this party? Socially moderate, ah no.
18 paulie // Jan 5, 2013 at 6:30 pm
Yes, but then you thrown in Lenora Fulani and John Hagelin….
19 johnO // Jan 5, 2013 at 7:00 pm
ha ha!!! so true!
20 paulie // Jan 5, 2013 at 7:50 pm
It was the biggest bag of mixed nuts I ever did see
21 Miro // Jan 6, 2013 at 12:50 am
I picked up this book as soon as it came out and it was a very good read.
If you’re in it for the third parties, Richard’s analysis is very accurate and you’ll definitely be disappointed, as most of Buchanan’s life was spent within the Republican Party, furthermore, when they do get to the Reform Party, there’s very much an emphasis on his view of things.
However, if you’re into Buchanan’s antics and the Culture War of the 90s, this book is definitely worth a read.
22 Peter J. Orvetti // Jan 6, 2013 at 2:25 am
Don’t forget Trump.
The idea of a centrist party focused on deficit reduction is a good one. Unfortunately, Perot’s party became a cult of personality, and once he lost interest, it became a catch-all for anyone seeking a ballot line.
23 Dennis // Jan 7, 2013 at 2:17 am
The decline began at the 1996 convention; Lamm should have been the nominee. But the process was heavily controlled by the perot loyalists.
24 paulie // Jan 7, 2013 at 2:37 am
Well, they did better their first time out than Americans Elect did, LOL.
25 Peter J. Orvetti // Jan 8, 2013 at 7:22 am
I saw a few articles during last year’s campaign about how fitting a Perot type would have been for 2012, when the deficit and debt crises far eclipsed where we were in 1992. I suppose AE might have filled that role, particular if David Walker could have been enticed to run.
26 paulie // Jan 8, 2013 at 11:15 am
Well, yeah, the potential existed, but it ended up being a flop. To give the Reform Party credit, at least they did not start out being a total flop their first time out, unlike AE.
27 Dennis // Jan 8, 2013 at 12:27 pm
Because the Reform Party was comprised of real activists, not fantasy football politicians like AE.
28 paulie // Jan 10, 2013 at 9:18 pm
AE had potential to ride a wave of similar sentiment to what Reformers did in the 1990s (and still does if AE gets it together in 2016), but since Bloomberg wouldn’t run himself and could not find anyone else who fit his agenda and had adequate credentials to gather enough support …and would not allow grass roots to take over…it crashed and burned.
Perot handled things relatively better, but it did end up crashing and burning, it just took longer.
We’ll see if anything rises from the ashes.
Here’s a press release they put out…
The Reform Party Looks Forward
For Immediate Release
The Reform Party of the United States of America is rebuilding their organization. Founded in 1995, the party found mainstream success when Ross Perot obtained eight percent of the popular vote in the 1996 presidential election and Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota in 1998. Disaster struck in 2000 when Pat Buchanan followers led a takeover of the party, leading to a loss of ballot access and a decade of in-fighting that decimated party membership.
Over the past decade, the party has pulled itself together. The Reform Party has twenty four active affiliates, four of which were added to the organization during the 2012 convention. The position of the party was strengthened when Kevin Kennedy on the board of Belleville, NJ became publically affiliated and Bob Acker won a seat on a local utilities board in Colorado.
In January of 2012, the Reform Party Executive Committee began by chartering a new Communications Committee, chaired by Nicholas Hensley of North Carolina. The committee maintains internal communications and public relations and is composed of professionals with a background in modern marketing techniques.
The committee launched a new website with help of webmasters JD West and Cleave Drummond. This website replaced a page that dated back to the late 1990s. Additions included a press section that is regularly updated with press releases approved by a three member oversight board. “This is a big step forward for the party, which hasn’t released any press announcements in recent memory,” said Hensley.
Their web presence is anchored by the use of social media sites. Daily maintenance of these once abandoned pages has seen in an explosion in followers and activity. “We’ve nearly tripled our Facebook following and doubled our twitter followers. We’ve got new Linkedin, Tumblr and Google+ pages,” said Hensley.
Since 2013 is an off year for federal elections, the committee has turned to infrastructure building and content creation while state and local affiliates run candidates for local offices. “We have a lot of projects we’re working on,” Hensley said “We’re working on press releases, a press kit, an organizer kit with fliers, business cards and all the materials an on-the-ground organizer will need.”
The Reform Party is working to put itself in a better position to win offices during the mid-term, when they hope to reemerge as a viable alternative to Democrats and Republicans.
The Reform Party’s website can be found at http://www.reformparty.org and can be contacted by email at ncreformparty@yahoo.com.
For Further Information contact:
David Collison
Phone: 832-236-5549
Email: chairman@reformparty.org
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