Ross on the ropes

Madsen also lists more subjective reasons, such as the $12.6 million in federal matching funds waiting for the Reform Party's 2000 presidential nominee. (Ironically, the money exists because of Perot's showing in 1996.) The Reform Party also has presidential-ballot access in 19 states and $2.5 million in federal money for its 2000 national convention. The American Reform Party has no automatic ballot access and no federal money coming its way.

The letter is careful not to vilify Perot, except to predict that the "top-down" approach of the Reform Party will be a thing of the past under the new Ventura-led regime. Verney, who says any perception of a Perot dictatorship is false, says he couldn't care less whether Madsen and his gang return.

"They possess nothing of value to bring to the Reform Party," he says. "They're welcome if they come with an attitude of party-building, but in the past it's been all about them personally."

Madsen, however, has friends in high places, which could portend a visible role for him in the revamped Reform Party. Chairman Gargan says he considers Madsen both an antagonist and protagonist who, despite his sarcastic wit, takes the high road in disputes.

Madsen also is treasurer and Internet operations director with Ventura's campaign committee, and he worked on the governor's transition team. Verney takes delight in characterizing Madsen's job with the campaign as "doll salesman," as the committee markets three Jesse Ventura "action figures" to raise money.

Regarding Madsen's connections with the party's new titular head, Verney says: "That's Governor Ventura's problem, not mine."

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There are two stories going around as to why Russ Verney voluntarily stepped down as chairman of the Reform Party.

Gargan says Reform Party members, including those who are more mainstream than dissident, drafted him to run for chairman because they were dissatisfied with the party's direction under Verney and, by association, Perot. Ballot access had been lost in more states than it had been retained, and an increasing number of states had no representation at each successive national convention.

"There was considerable unrest in the ranks," says Gargan, who describes the party as having been on the verge of total collapse. "Without fingering certain people, the whole party seemed to be drifting without any focus."

Verney, however, says he felt no pressure to hang it up, and instead just felt it was time to allow new leadership to blossom.

"I have worked day and night for seven years at the vanguard of this reform movement," says Verney, 52, who went to work for Perot in 1992 after quitting as executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "I have traveled the country from coast to coast and border to border in support of this. I personally know virtually everyone who is a convention delegate. Through my performance and my commitment and my dedication to this, I have no doubt that if I ran for re-election, I would have been overwhelmingly re-elected and would be for time immemorial."

The 1999 chairman race, however, came down to Gargan, the choice of the dissidents and Ventura, and Patricia Benjamin, the choice of Verney and Pat Choate, Perot's 1996 running mate. Nevertheless, several Reform Party activists are spinning the yarn that the media unfairly portrayed the contest as a grudge match between Ventura and Perot.

Gargan points to Ventura's convention speech, which contained several minutes of praise for Perot. The Truaxes say Perot received an enthusiastic ovation at the convention when he gave his speech -- an address, by the way, that never mentioned Ventura. Even Madsen will concede that Perot is owed a debt of gratitude for all he has done for the reform movement.

Yet when Gargan sought endorsements for his chairman candidacy, he went to Ventura and not Perot. "There used to be a day I could call Mr. Perot and they would patch me through, and now I can't get through to him on the phone or even get my letters answered," Gargan says. "I don't know what I did wrong to justify that. I didn't ask him for an endorsement because I knew he wouldn't give it to me."

In fact, Perot did not officially endorse anyone, although that was implied with Verney and Choate's backing of Benjamin. Verney maintains that Perot did not want to continue to be the figurehead of the party.

"On Election Night 1996, he said he was going to step back and allow us, the owners of the party, the people who created it, to take ownership of it and continue it on," he says. "He's been supportive of that ever since. He did not go into [the 1999 convention] looking at this as any contest between him and anyone else. He viewed it as the continued building of his gift to America, the Reform Party, by the people who own it."

Since 1996 Perot has made only three appearances at Reform Party functions -- each annual national convention. Verney says he apprises Perot daily of the party's progress. But reform-movement activists such as Gargan and Madsen suggest that Perot is guilty of neglect and that the torch needed to be passed to ensure survival.

"Jesse Ventura did something that Perot never did, and that's win," Madsen says bluntly.

In Sugar Land, Jim Welch is considering whether to become active in the reform movement again. He offers a pearl that could stand as a Perot epithet: "He was not the leader that he initially portrayed himself to be. This whole thing of 'Whatever the people want,' that was a crock."