Ross on the ropes

"Since Perot said United We Stand America belonged to the people, I came to the conclusion right then that Perot had sold us out yet again by bringing in the Democrats and Republicans," Welch recalls.

His committee continued until it finished drafting a proposed platform. He was ready to take the conference by storm by demanding the immediate creation of a political party.

"We thought we could take over," Welch says. "But Dallas got word of this uprising, and Perot's folks came down to Houston to meet with us. They said, 'Please don't do that; you'll embarrass Ross.' My attitude was, 'I don't really care. He's embarrassed us enough already.'"

Welch says United We Stand leaders agreed to let him introduce his proposal on the last day of the conference -- then gaveled it to a close without fulfilling that promise.

Welch says that on that same day, his wife marched into a room of 150 people, including Verney, who was United We Stand's executive director. "She went up to Verney, took off her membership badge, threw it at him, and told him to stick it up his ass, I think is what she said. We both resigned and walked away from it at that point."

Verney says those who sought to transform the organization into a third party had unrealistic expectations. The event was a conference, not a convention. There were no delegates or opportunities for floor votes and no false promises, Verney says. "What they had was a hope or aspiration that is being viewed four years later as a promise."

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As Welch was trying to convert United We Stand America into a third party, Madsen was trying to get a new party off the ground in Minnesota. Two months after Perot's July 1992 withdrawal from the race, a committee met in Chicago that included Jack Gargan, Lowell Weicker, 1980 independent presidential candidate John Anderson, and Madsen. They discussed forming what became the Independence Party, an appeal to the fiscally responsible centrist.

That party fielded a U.S. Senate candidate in Minnesota in 1994 who received 5.4 percent of the vote. But like other third parties, Madsen's movement fell victim to infighting. Although his heart wasn't in it, Madsen kept ties with the Perot movement, retaining a membership with United We Stand by sending his annual $15 dues to Dallas.

"In Minnesota, it boiled down to people who were for Perot and people who felt we should proceed independently of Dallas," Madsen says. "We'd all get along fine with each other as an organization, but as soon as the name Ross Perot was injected in the mix, things started to split down the middle. That's when we'd have the most vicious fights. I think it has to do with the psychology of a typical Perot supporter. When you say something critical of Perot, a Perot loyalist will tend to take it personally, as if you are criticizing him or her. I think Perot's most strident loyalists have lost the distinction between the message and the man."

To Verney and Paul Truax, it's the name Madsen, not Perot, that creates the schisms.

"Nobody likes this guy," Truax says. "I hate him. I'll admit that freely. He's arrogant, obnoxious, and kind of slimy. The only reason I would go to his funeral is to make sure he's in the box."

When the fledgling Reform Party (which evolved out of United We Stand) met in 1996 to select its candidate for president, Madsen was there. But he was behind a splinter faction that sought to nominate former Colorado governor Richard Lamm instead of Perot. Alleging that the balloting process was unfair, Madsen staged a walkout.

"Dallas called us dissidents and plants from the Republican and Democratic parties who were trying to ruin the success of the Reform Party," Madsen says. "They called us self-promoters."

The so-called dissidents met the following year and voted to form their own party with a similar name, the American Reform Party. Jim Welch joined in the fun.

"The thing that's the wildest part about it is there is no unification -- even within this breakaway faction, there is division," he says. "They are about as organized as a bucket of minnows."

The so-called Perotbots slur the splinter group by calling them "Schaumies," a reference to Schaumburg, Illinois, where the group held its first convention. Verney slurs the party even worse, referring to its leaders as disruptive, self-centered control freaks.

"The American Reform Party consists of five people you wouldn't go out to lunch with," he says in an accent that reflects his Bostonian upbringing. "They've contributed nothing except confusion."

Madsen says the party has vitality, but he is calling for its dissolution. He has sent an 11-page letter to reformers of his ilk, laying out reasons for rejoining the Reform Party USA. The top reason he lists is Jesse Ventura.