07/08/00 - ASSOCIATED PRESS - LAURA MECKLER   BOSS VERNEY OUSTED FROM REFORM PARTY Bending to wishes of Pat Buchanan campaign, the chairman of the Reform Party has ousted a longtime supporter of Ross Perot from a crucial committee post.    Perot backer Russell Verney had already been removed from the party's national committee, and on Friday he was also removed as co-chairman of the credentials committee, which helps determine which delegates are seated at the party's August convention in Long Beach, Calif. The convention, in turn, will help determine who gets the party's presidential nomination and the $12.6 million in federal campaign dollars that comes with it. Party members are now voting through mail-in ballots, but the convention has the power to overturn those results with a two-thirds vote... Gerry Moan, the party's acting national chairman, said he decided Friday to remove Verney and replace him with Kelley Abt, a Buchanan supporter.    Moan said he made the change because Verney had become too controversial.    "Fairly or unfairly - I consider it unfairly - Russ had become a lightening rod," Moan said... On Friday, Buchanan supporters told Moan they had enough votes to call for a special meeting of the national committee. And, according to Verney and Donovan, they threatened to use that meeting to remove Moan as chairman if he did not remove Verney first...     Bay Buchanan, who runs her brother's campaign, confirmed that his supporters were set to force a national meeting. But she said it was Verney who was not dealing fairly with Buchanan supporters. "We said we felt the credentials committee has to be fair and objective," she said. "Russ Verney was basically designating himself as leader of the anti-Buchanan movement."    "There's only a few disgruntled former Perotistas on board that are unhappy about Pat Buchanan," she said. "For them to control a critical committee like credentials isn't fair." 07/08/00 - PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE   BUCHANAN, REFORM PARTY CANDIDATE BRINGS CAMPAIGN THEME TO MON VALLEY Pat Buchanan, the potential presidential candidate of the Reform Party, brought his America first campaign theme to the Mon Valley Friday night and said he expects to go toe-to-toe with Al Gore and George W. Bush when it comes time to debate.    "Even Mario Cuomo says Pat ought to be in the debates," Buchanan told a group of more than 50 supporters at Monteray Restaurant and Marina near Monongahela. The former Republican presidential candidate, Nixon and Reagan White House aide and television talk show host said he expected public pressure to force the hand of the Presidential Debate Commission to allow the Reform Party to participate.    The party and the Federal Elections Commission are currently in court over rules that would likely bar the Reformers and other parties from participating. Buchanan's visit to the Mon Valley was half family reunion and half political rally. His mother, the former Catherine Crum, was born in Belle Vernon and grew up Charleroi. Buchanan spent summers with his grandparents in Charleroi. During remarks to the audience, Buchanan reiterated his themes of securing national borders, imposing tariffs that balance international trade and establishing the Reform Party as an "opposition party" to Republicans and Democrats that Reformers complain are too similar.    "It's a fix," Buchanan said of the current two-party system. "The fix is in. No matter which candidate wins, the course of trade, immigration and national defense won't change." He said a successful Reform Party effort is the only solution. For Tim McIntyre of Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, illegal immigration is a key issue.    "He's for securing our borders. The other candidates are internationalists," McIntyre said.    Art Mohall, a retired school teacher from Connellsville, said he supports Buchanan because he offers a true difference.    "They are wishy-washy. Pat says what he believes," Mohall said.    He agreed with Buchanan's call for tariffs in hopes of bringing heavy manufacturing back to the Mon Valley.    "We're nothing but service jobs. Yea, sure. If you want to work at McDonald's or Wal-Mart. There is nothing wrong with those jobs, but you can't raise a family on them," Mohall said. And that, Buchanan claimed, is his goal.    "What we want is a single income to be able to support a family," he said.    "We should be in high-tech, but we shouldn't give up heavy industry," said Buchanan, claiming that American economic assistance to Europe during the Cold War brought on the end of the steel industry in the United States.     Treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization are making it worse, he added. He also said relaxed trade rules with China pose a threat to Taiwan and the United States.    "They are using the money they get from us to persecute Christians and buy destroyers and missiles to threaten Taiwan and take out someone's fleet. And we are the only fleet in the Pacific," he said.    "We have to tell them to stop persecuting Christians ... and you guys have sold your last chopsticks in any malls in America," he added. After the bitter struggles within the Reform Party between himself and supporters for Donald Trump and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, Buchanan said it was important to come out of the party's convention next month united and on the ballot in all 50 states, a goal yet to be achieved.    "The first thing we need to do is get the nomination. ... If we can get (to the debates) then we're the wild card in the playoffs," he told reporters. 06/28/00 - SALON - Anthony York   PEROT MAY RUN ... Perot allies hinted to Salon Tuesday -- the Texas billionaire's 70th birthday -- that he may be leaning toward throwing his hat in the ring. "There is a group that has been working to get him on the ballot, and they are about to make an announcement," said Reform Party spokeswoman Donna Donovan.... The effort to qualify Perot for the Reform primary ballot has been led by Ira Goodman, the former chair of the New Jersey Reform Party who resigned in protest after Buchanan's forces took control of the party earlier this month. Goodman maintains that he has had no contact with Perot, and does not know whether or not he will accept the invitation to run, even if his effort clears the way for a Perot candidacy. "Well, let's put it this way," Goodman said. "We've done everything that we can to prepare the way for him to get into the race. Once I submit everything to the nominating committee it will be up to Mr. Perot." Goodman said he would submit everything to the national Reform Party before the Saturday deadline. But even if Goodman is successful in qualifying Perot for the ballot, the two-time party standard-bearer will have to give his OK to the head of the presidential nominating committee, Michael Ferris, for his name to appear on the ballot. For now, Perot is keeping quiet. But his spokesman, Russ Verney, said he has had "no discussions about any hypotheticals with Mr. Perot." He did say, however, that Perot would consider the Reform Party nomination. He also said Perot might seek the nomination without launching a full-scale presidential run. "This isn't about competing for the presidency," Verney said, noting that a Perot candidacy could not qualify to compete in all 50 states. "This would be about nominating Ross as somebody who would use the $12.5 million" -- in federal matching funds available to the party's presidential nominee -- "to advertise the issues that are important to members of the Reform Party." Either way, Perot must make up his mind fast. According to party rules, the deadline for any candidate to qualify for the ballot is Saturday. Ballots for the party's mail-in primary will then be sent out to any voter who wants to participate in the primary. "We could expect an announcement on Friday," Donovan said. Maryland Reform Party Chair and Buchanan ally Robert Bowes said he was tipped off to what he calls the "secret Web site," which he believes Perot forces have been using for several months to garner support for their candidate and orchestrate a possible Perot presidential bid. It includes a contact of Perot allies, a guide to the Byzantine rules of the party's presidential nominating process and a state-by-state posting of efforts to draft Perot. Bowes was incensed that Perot may "piggyback" on the work the Buchanan campaign has invested in qualifying for the ballot to emerge and steal the election. He said that while the Buchanan campaign has invested tens of thousands of dollars to qualify for the ballot on its own, if Perot emerges as the party's nominee, it would be Perot's name on the ballot. Because of the party's quirky qualification process, individual candidates are responsible for securing their own ballot placement. But most states require what are called "party ballots," reserving a spot for the party's presidential nominee. Therefore, Perot could reap the benefits of Buchanan's work if he managed to wrestle the nomination away from Buchanan. Essentially, Bowes charges, the draft-Perot movement found a loophole in the law, and is attempting to drive a Perot candidacy right through it. Bowes estimated that Buchanan has collected more than 800,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot thus far. Goodman estimated that he would need only "between four and six thousand" signatures to get Perot on the Reform Party ballot. "Perot is just leeching off the hard work and success of Buchanan to put the party fully on the map in this chintzy, under-the-radar effort to get Perot snuck into this primary," Bowes said. "The question is, is this really some independent effort or has Perot been behind this all along?" ... MORE FROM THE INTERNET BRIGADE NEWSWIRE...

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