Politics

Does Reform Party Want Pat?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 31, 1999 / 3:57 PM EDT / CBS

During all the years Pat Buchanan was at the side of powerful Republican icons helping lead the conservative GOP revolution, he never considered abandoning his Grand Old Party. But that's changed, reports CBS News Correspondent Phil Jones.

"My prediction is we will get Pat Buchanan into the Reform Party," says Pat Choate, Ross Perot's Reform Party vice presidential running mate in 1996. Choate is leading the drive to recruit Buchanan.

"We are saying to him, we'll be on the ballot in 50 states, we start with $12.6 million of federal funding," Choate says. "We offer a route to the general election for him."

But CBS News interviews with state chairs of the Reform Party show division over Buchanan.

"I think he would have to go to the party and convince people he can not only unify the party, but the country if he got elected," says Massachusetts State Chairman Andy Lizotte.

CBS News reached all but six of the state Reform Party chairs. Despite overall favorable views of Buchanan, only 41 percent said the would like to see Buchanan seek the Reform Party nomination. Thirty-nine percent of those we reached said "no."

Almost everyone likes what Buchanan told them at their convention in 1995 about his hard-line trade and economic views. "When I get to the White House NAFTA will be canceled and there will be no more $50 billion bailouts of socialist regimes anywhere in the world," he told the applauding delegates.

But it is Buchanan's unyielding conservative stands on social issues that scares many. Only 2 of the 44 chairs contacted by CBS News thought his views matched their party.

"We take no position on social issues such as abortion and he has made some very strong statements as to his stand on that," says Virginia State Chair Sue Harris DeBauche.

Buchanan backer Choate was asked about Buchanan's stands on social issues. "It neither qualifies nor disqualifies," Choate says. "It's not part of our platform. We are not about social issues."

A source close to Buchanan says the jump is imminent, with an announcement expected by the middle of next month.