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The Reform Party of the United States of America (abbreviated Reform Party USA or RPUSA) is a political party in the United States. It is usually referred to simply as the Reform Party within the U.S.
History
It was founded in 1995, based on the movement which grew out of Ross Perot's (almost completely self-funded) 1992 campaign, in which he received almost 20% of the popular vote. It nominated Perot for president again in the 1996 election, with Pat Choate as vice-presidential candidate. They won 8% of the vote.
By the 2000 election, having been abandoned by Perot, the Party's qualification for federal election funds had made it an attractive takeover target. Both former Republican Pat Buchanan and John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party attempted to win control of the Reform Party. A parliamentry struggle ensued with each claiming to be the official candidate.
The struggle culminated in August 2000, when Buchanan was nominated by the party's convention in Long Beach, California and Hagelin was nominated by a rump convention of delegates who walked out of the one dominated by Buchanan supporters. The split was characterized by heated arguments and even shoving matches between the Buchanan and Hagelin factions.
Buchanan was ruled by the Federal Election Commission to be the official candidate and therefore eligible for the federal election funds, about $12.5 million. In the 2000 election, Buchanan and Vice-Presidential running mate Ezola B. Foster received 448,895 votes, or 0.4% of the popular vote, failing to meet the 5% threshold to receive federal election funds in 2004. John Hagelin received 83,714 votes--mainly on the Natural Law Party line--which amounted to barely 0.1% of the popular vote.
Three minor parties split off from the Reform Party:
Dissident Reformers who became disillusioned with Perot's control over the party after the 1996 election split to establish the American Reform Party.
In 1998, Jesse Ventura was elected governor of the state of Minnesota on the Reform Party ticket. The Minnesota branch of the Reform Party disaffiliated itself from the national party after the Buchanan takeover and renamed itself the Independence Party of Minnesota.
The final Reform Party split occurred in April 2002, when former Buchanan supporters left in droves to form the right-wing America First Party. Buchanan supporters took at least eight affiliated state parties with them when they quit, badly hurting the Reform Party's future prospects.
By the October 2003 convention the Reform Party was organized in only thirty states (many of which were rump affiliates controlled by the America First Party) and had ballot access for the 2004 election in only seven. In most of those seven states, the party organizations had recently left the national party or were about to disaffiliate from it. Ballot status was not expected to be gained in any other states.
More than two thirds of the 41 participants in a presidential candidate nominating session held May 12, 2004 voted to nominate Ralph Nader as the RPUSA candidate for President.
By August 11, 2004 it appeared that whatever remained of the Reform Party USA was over, as the national party treasurer, William D. Chapman Sr, informed Federal Election Commission officials the party had only $18.18 left in the bank and should be ended. As of that date, the party was more than $300,000 in debt. In response, the Reform Party leadership suspended Chapman from his post.
The 2004 RPUSA convention was scheduled to be held July 22-25 in Columbus, Ohio but was cancelled due to the collapse of the party. Sixty-three delegates (according to the party chairman, Sean O'Hara of Mississippi) attended a national convention on August 27-28 in Irving, Texas and chose Ralph Nader to be the party's nominee for President. Other reports put the number of delegates attending this convention at as few as ten or eleven and noted that the motel which served as the convention site does not have any facilities for group meetings.
In early September, appeals to have Nader's name stricken from the Florida and Colorado ballots on the basis that the party was no longer a "national" party choosing its nominee by a "national" convention were denied by the courts in those states.
Reform Party Presidential tickets
Platform
The Reform Party platform included the following:
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