Two Candidates Claim Reform Nomination
L O N G B E A C H, Calif., Aug. 13 -- Two opposing candidates have claimed the Reform Party’s presidential nomination, as rival factions each continue to assert legitimacy at competing conventions here.
In one hall of the Long Beach Convention Center, some 500 Reform Party delegates voted overwhelmingly to elect controversial conservative Pat Buchanan as their presidential nominee.
Across the street, at another hall in the same complex, a separate gathering of Reform Party members named Dr. John Hagelin, a little-known physicist from Iowa, as the party’s presidential candidate.
Both camps insist they are the real Reform Party and that their chosen candidate is the legitimate nominee and the one entitled to $12.6 million in campaign funds from the Federal Election Commission.
Buchanan Slams GOP
On Friday, pro-Buchanan delegates voted 471-0, with six abstentions, to nominate the three-time Republican candidate as the next president — hardly a surprise, given that pro-Hagelin delegates were barred from even entering the Buchanan convention.
“What are we fighting for?” Buchanan asked supporters Saturday night, as he accepted their nomination. “To save our country from being sold down the river into some godless New World Order … and we will fight on and on and on and on until God himself calls us home.”
Buchanan also reached out to founder Ross Perot and hissupporters.
“Ross, let’s go out and do battle together,” Buchanan said ina last-minute revision to his nomination acceptance speech. “We’regiving (the party) the chance to grow and live. We’ve earned thatchance. Ross, come on out and give us a hand.”
In his speech, Buchanan called on fellow social conservatives, whom he insisted had been abandoned by the GOP, to join him in the third party.
“At long last we have a home of our own,” he said firmly. “As for those homeless conservatives … all I can say is: Folks, come on over — there is plenty of room in Reform.”
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