July 22, 1999
Web posted at: 9:49 a.m. EDT (1349 GMT)

The convention runs Friday, July 23 through Sunday, July 25.

The battle pits Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, the only statewide candidate to ever be elected on the Reform Party ticket, against the existing Reform Party leadership headed by Ross Perot. Russ Verney, the current Reform Party chairman and a Perot backer, is stepping down.

Ventura supports Jack Gargan, a retired financial consultant who ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Reform Party ticket in 1998, to replace Verney as national chairman. Gargan would move the headquarters from Dallas to his home in Cedar Key, Florida.

Ventura says he will "remain reluctant to fully embrace the National Reform Party" if party leaders fail to elect Gargan at the 1999 convention.

Ventura's icy relations with the Perot camp started last year when he asked the Reform Party to provide money for his campaign and was turned down. Since then, he's been looking for ways to wrestle control of the party away from Perot.

Perot and Verney, meanwhile, want the party headquarters to remain in Dallas. They are supporting either Vice Chairwoman Patricia Benjamin or National Rules Chairman Tom McLaughlin as national chairs.

There is also considerable speculation about who the Reform Party may mount as a presidential candidate in 2000. Perot, who received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 8 percent in 1996, has so far not announced his plans. Ventura is encouraging former Connecticut governor Lowell Weicker to run for president. Weicker is said to be thinking about it, although he will not attend the Reform Party convention this year.

Other possibilities are real estate mogul Donald Trump, who said in a recent press release: "While I have not decided to become a candidate at this time, if the Reform Party nominated me, I would probably run and probably win."

Conservative GOP presidential contender Pat Buchanan has also strongly hinted that he might seek a third-party nomination, and met with Ventura in June.

The party will have more than $12 million in federal funds to spend on its presidential candidate next year, based on Perot's performance in the 1996 general election. But the party is on the ballot in only 20 states right now, having failed to get an average of 2 percent of the vote in 30 states in the 1998 elections. So any Reform Party presidential candidate would have to collect signatures to be on the ballot in all 50 states.

Thursday, July 22, 1999

• House Republicans push through $792 billion tax cut plan
• Tax cuts roll call
• Bradley challenges GOP on soft money pledge
• Clinton pitches prescription coverage for Medicare
• Most leaks come from executive branch, CIA director says
• Battle looming for control of Reform Party at National Convention
• Security improvements needed year after shootings
• House refuses to restore funding for F-22 fighter jet
• Report: VA wastes $1 million a day
• In flap over donor lists, PBS will fight to keep its federal funding
• Bush unveils social services plan
• Cohen calls House report misleading, but acknowledges 'some deficiencies' by Pentagon
• Government help sought to curb spread of sprawl to farms
• Presidents, lawmakers appeal to Hollywood
• Hillary Clinton draws "smelly" ad, Democratic criticism
• 25 raise $100,000 each for Gore
• Clinton recalls White House tour he gave John F. Kennedy Jr.
• Moratorium on chemical hazard disclosures approved
• Bus becoming campaign vehicle of choice

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