December 7, 1999
By
Victoria Carrington
CyberCaucus 2000 News Service
Drake
University
DES MOINES, Iowa--The Reform Party has encompassed a new wave of politicans who are challenging the status quo in American politics. Ross Perot, Jesse Ventura, Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump have all been listed on the Reform Party roster. And Iowans are joining in the cause.
The Reform party is based on an ideology that would alter the rules that govern our political system.
"It's changing our system. We want a better government. There were a lot of people out there who had been disgusted for a long time and didn't think there was anything we could do about it. We didn't have a vehicle," Sheryl Blue, chairwoman of the Reform Party of Iowa, said.
Blue said the party emphasizes the need for the highest ethical standards for elected officials, campaign finance reform and term limits.
Don Torgersen, communications chairman and press secretary for the American Reform Party, said, "The parties don't represent us any more." He said he believes this is one of the reasons for low voting rates in the United States. "Many people believe that their vote doesn't mean anything anymore," Torgersen said. "We are calling for the Electoral College to be abandoned and all votes to take place by the popular vote." He said that under the Electoral College (state votes are given to a winning candidate in blocs), it's quite possible that a candidate could be elected as president with a minority of votes. "It hasn't happened in recent history, but it potentially can," Torgersen said.
A third party also offers new options for voters who have no choice but to take whatever candidates the two major parties put forward. "We don't think we're getting the best-qualified candidates out there. We're looking for a better candidate, and we're looking to break up the two party-monopoly, and only a strong and viable third party can do that," Torgersen said.
He added that the Republicans and Democrats have become "a uniparty with a dual exhaust system--and I emphasize the word exhaust."
Campaign reform is another major platform of the Reform Party. Blue said, "The Democrats and the Republicans no longer represent the interests of the average citizen. They have sold out to multi-national corporations - whoever makes the biggest campaign donations."
"We take absolutely no PAC money, corporate donations of any kind, only individual contributions," Blue said. "We won't take soft funding. We don't take it because that removes the doubt."
Torgersen said, "It's big money that drives the elections, and when you have that kind of money driving elections, you can't help but pay attention to the biggest donors first." He said he believes the role of lobbyists is to provide information not money.
The Reform Party calls for fair ballot access for third-party and independent candidates including participation in debates and forums by qualified candidates. The preferred voting method of the Reform Party would be open primaries on a single unified ballot so that voters could choose candidates from any party. The elections would be held on an "instant run, cumulative voting system" where candidates are ranked by choice. If there is no majority winner, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and the second and third choice votes are moved to the remaining candidates. There would also be the choice of "none of the above."
The party also favors the courts choosing legislative voting districts, rather than the political parties. Torgersen said the party platform for government reform also calls for prompt disclosure of voting records--both in committee and on the floor, citizen referendum laws in all states and a recall vote to remove legislators. He would publish uniform statewide guides listing all of the candidates, their biographies and the issues for which they stand.
"One of the big problems in elections is that only about 24 percent of the people voting know anything about the candidate or the issues they stand for. So the game is to capture the 76 percent that don't anything about anything," Torgersen said. "To renew democracy, our mission is to stimulate citizen participation in the political process, break the two-party monopoly and guarantee fair elections."
The Reform Party is relatively new to Iowans. It was certified as a legal party in 1998 and must maintain 2 percent of the vote to be recertified by the state for the upcoming presidential race. Blue said, "I fully expect to get recertification back in 2000."
At the end of 1998, there were 992 registered reform party members. By the middle of October 1999, the number had risen to approximately 1,500. Blue said those numbers include an influx of blue-collar Democrats and college students. "We're seeing a more traditional, conservative views from college students than we expected," Blue said.
The Iowa Reform Party does not participate in the Jan. 24 caucuses in the state, but the day before, Jan. 23, Iowa and Minnesota party members will hold a Poll Bowl at Clear Lake and declared candidates are invited to attend. The event is also open to the public.
Buchanan, a former candidate for the Republican party nomination, officially announced he will run instead on the Reform Party ticket, and Trump has indicated that he likely will as well, although it's not official yet.
"Our principles are so basic to American values you can have such opposites as Donald Trump and Pat Buchanan and still both fit in the party. We don't take a stand on social issues," Blue said. "Buchanan had a lot of supporters, he does speak to our issues on a political level, but not on the social level because we don't take a stand on that."