h. ross perot
reform party founder
interesting facts
Ross Perot earned the largest percent of the popular vote as an third party candidate, 19%, since Theodore Roosevelt on the "Bull Moose" ticket.
quote
"If we really want to know who is responsible for the mess we're in, all we have to do is look in the mirror. You and I own this country, and we are responsible for what happens to it." (United We Stand).
"Interestingly--I love the question, 'Can you govern?' and my answer is, 'Compared to whom?'"
biography
Born June 27, 1930 in Texarkana, Texas, a small town near the Arkansas line, Henry Ross Perot came of age during the Depression of the 1930's and World War II. His house was only a few blocks from the Texarkana train station, and his mother often fed hobos passing through town. By the age of 6, young Perot went to work for his father, Gabriel Ross Perot. The elder Perot was a cotton broker and a part time horse trader who put his young son to work at the age of six breaking horses for a dollar or two apiece. "Perot's nose still shows the results of the falls he took."
Perot desperately wanted to follow in the footsteps of some older local boys who had attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and had served in World War II. Needing the sponsorship of a representative or senator, Perot prevailed upon U.S. Senator W. Lee O'Daniel (D-Tex.) to sponsor his application to Annapolis. "The Perot family did not have the right contacts. He just kept writing to senators begging for sponsorship," wrote Ken Follett in his authorized book about Perot, "On Wings of Eagles." Upon obtaining his sponsorship, Perot left Texarkana Junior College in 1949 and entered the Naval Academy.
Perot graduated almost exactly in the middle of his 1953 class of midshipmen (454th in a class of 925). However, he won over the hearts of his fellow middies and was chosen class president during the 1952-1953 school year, ahead of class valedictorian Carlisle A. H. Trost, who later became head of the Navy.
The Korean War ended just as Perot graduated from Annapolis. He was assigned to the USS Sigourney and immediately took a shine to the ship's commander, Captain B. A. Lienhard. By all accounts, Captain Lienhard was a straight-shooting, stern, by-the-books military man. In 1954, Captain Lienhard was replaced by Commander Gerald J. Scott, a decidedly more laid back, one-of-the-guys kind of leader. Scott took little interest in Perot and shipmates remember the two were at odds over basic questions of morality and conduct.
In spite of confrontations with his commander, Perot was made a lieutenant, junior grade, in late 1954. In a letter to his father in 1955, Perot expressed profound dissatisfaction with his life in the Navy. He was transferred to the aircraft carrier USS Leyte in 1955 and served out the remainder of his four year commitment, receiving a discharge in 1957. While serving on the USS Leyte in 1956, he married Margot Birmingham. They have five children. Throughout Perot's professional and public career, he has actively shielded his family from the critical eye of media scrutiny and has remained wary of their exposure.
Perot's first civilian job was as a salesman for IBM in 1957. By 1962 he was one of IBM's top salesman in Texas; he fulfilled his sales quota for the whole year of 1962 by January 19. Perot went to his superiors at IBM and pitched the idea for a new service to help IBM customers get more out of their computer systems. Finding no support among the IBM brass, Perot borrowed $1,000 from his wife's savings, a significant sum of money in 1962 from a woman who was not of great wealth, and founded the Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS) in Dallas.
Working long hours and seeking out growing companies (such as chip maker Frito-Lay, EDS's first client) Perot helped his company grow by leaps and bounds. The company's motto was "Eagles don't flock; you find them one at a time," and employees were expected to be clean-cut, wearing dark suits, white shirts and sporting no facial hair. EDS and Perot landed lucrative government contracts in the 1960's, computerizing Medicare records. EDS went public in 1968 and the stock raced upwards from $16 a share to $160 virtually overnight. Fortune magazine put Perot on its cover in 1968, calling him the "fastest, richest Texan."
In 1969, at the behest of President Nixon's National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, Perot first entered the world of high-wire, free-lance diplomacy and national security. Packing two jumbo jets with food, medicine and reporters, Perot went on a quixotic quest to deliver the goods to U.S. POW's held in North Vietnam. The gifts never were delivered, despite pledges from the Soviets, but POW's said later the publicity brought about a much needed improvement of their conditions. EDS continued its remarkable success and Perot continued as a crusader for POW-MIA's in the 1970s.
One of the main components of the Perot myth is the 1979 rescue of two EDS employees from an Iranian jail. The story is the subject of a book, "On Wings of Eagles" by Ken Follett. Perot describes the book as extremely accurate. In brief, after two Perot employees were arrested, Perot brought in retired U.S. Army Colonel Arthur (Bull) Simons to lead a rescue team made up of volunteers who worked for Perot's computer company. (Perot also went to Tehran to personally oversee negotiations for the two employees, but the negotiations failed.) The rescue attempt came during the revolution in which the Shah of Iran was overthrown. It was successful. According to the Follett book, an Iranian EDS employee led a mob that stormed the prison. In the confusion, the two EDS employees walked away and made contact with the rescue team. The team then drove out of Iran to Turkey, where Perot (waiting in person) had arranged for a bus and then a chartered jet to fly them home to the U.S.
In a Special Assignment report broadcast on CNN in May of 1992, CNN's John Camp interviewed John Stempel, who was deputy chief of the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Stempel says the Iranian revolutionaries staged the jailbreak to free their own comrades -- not Perot's employees. Stempel's version of events in Iran is backed by others who were in the country at the time. These sources don't dispute that the Perot rescue team spirited the two executives out of Iran -- but agree that Perot's version of the jailbreak is inconsistent with their knowledge of the event.
In the Reagan Administration, Perot became a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, designed to advise the President on intelligence matters. He served during the controversial years when William J. Casey ran the CIA. It was during this period Perot met and worked closely with another Annapolis graduate, National Security aide Lt. Col. Oliver North. The two worked together on a variety of hostage-related problems throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
In the 1980s Perot also began to take a more substantive interest in domestic issues. In 1983 Texas Governor Mark White appointed Perot as chairman of a select committee on public education. It was supposed to study public education issues. Perot spent $2 million of his own money (in addition to the state appropriation of $68,500) touring Texas cities and towns in a private jet, holding public hearings and calling news conferences. Among the 140 recommendations in the committee's preliminary report: "Equalization of school spending among rich and poor districts; a renewed emphasis on academics rather than athletics in high school ('No pass, no play'); and tying teacher salaries to their job performance. Most of the committee's recommendations were approved by a special session of the Texas Legislature. Perot later said the effort was "the meanest, bloodiest and most difficult thing I've ever been into."
In 1984, Perot sold EDS to General Motors for $2.4 billion. GM Chairman Roger Smith put Perot on the Board of Directors, but the marriage was an unhappy one. Perot found GM to be a morass of bureaucracy and inefficiency and publicly criticized Smith and the company for its wastefulness and over-indulgent ways. In 1986, GM bought out the stock Perot had obtained upon merging with GM for $700 million. Part of Perot's settlement with GM stipulated that he not compete directly with GM and EDS for two years.
Two years and a day after the settlement Perot launched a new company, Perot Systems. He immediately announced a stunning contract with the U.S. Postal System in which his company would study the $38 billion agency for 18 months -- free of charge -- find the inefficiencies and carry out the findings over a ten year period. Perot would get to keep half of the savings of the Postal Service. EDS filed a formal complaint with the government and filed suit against Perot, charging breach of contract over his settlement with EDS-GM in 1986. The Postal Service backed out of the contract and a Fairfax County, Virginia court found Perot could start his company, but that it had to remain non-profit until 1991.
political career
Privately, Perot was not an admirer of fellow Texan George Bush, who was elected President in 1988; he was adamantly opposed to American involvement in the Gulf War and urged senators to vote against the war resolution in the fall of 1990. By the late summer of 1991, while Bush was still riding high in the polls in the the successful outcome of Operation Desert Storm, Perot began to consider a run for the presidency. Perot did polling, contacted political experts and started to lay the groundwork for a national campaign.
Perot used the medium of CNN's "Larry King Live!" on February 20, 1992 to communicate for the first time his intentions to run if his supporters succeeded in getting his name on all 50 state ballots. With the Democrats dickering between two candidates with major public flaws, former Senator Paul Tsongas and Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, Perot's poll numbers rose rapidly. There was a national spontaneous and grassroot effort to put Ross Perot on the ballot as an Independent candidate; this was the largest activist movement since the yellow ribbon campaigns during the Gulf War. Rallies for his president were found on the streets. TIME Magazine ran an article entitled "Ross Perot: he’s ready for America, but is America ready for him?"
On March 30, Perot named retired Navy Vice Admiral James Stockdale, an Annapolis graduate, a former POW and a lecturer at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, his provisional Vice Presidential running mate. By April, 1992 he was clearly competitive with both President Bush and the presumptive Democratic nominee, Clinton. In several national polls, Perot was found to be in a statistical dead heat with both Bush and Clinton. Perot hired Republican Ed Rollins and Democrat Hamilton Jordan, two veteran political consultants who had worked at high levels in national campaigns. But Perot began to stumble in mid-summer. Appearing on "Larry King" in late June, he accused the Republicans of conducting a "dirty tricks campaign" against him. In a speech to the NAACP, Perot referred to the audience as "your people" and was castigated into an apology. More critical articles began to appear in the national press in June and July, probing Perot's past and his volatile, driving personality.
The Democratic National Convention in New York was considered a grand success for Clinton and his new running mate, Senator Al Gore. Perot, his campaign slipping in the polls and plagued with infighting, announced on the final day of the convention he had decided to withdraw his bid for the presidency, based on a "revitalized" Democratic Party. Perot's supporters continued the drive to place his name on the ballot in all 50 states, despite his stated intention that he had decided not to run. On September 18, 1992, Perot qualified for the Arizona ballot, and became eligible to run in all 50 states.
With the election less than six weeks away, Perot announced his decision to re-enter the presidential race at a Dallas news conference on October 1. By many accounts, he acquitted himself well in the three debates with Bush and Clinton. His Vice-Presidential choice, Admiral Stockdale, fared less well in his single debate with Senator Gore and Vice President Dan Quayle. Having trouble with his hearing aid, Stockdale uttered the oft-repeated and much lampooned statement of the debate: "Who am I? And why am I here?"
Perot campaigned in only 16 states but spent an estimated $65.4 million of his own money in his start-stop-start campaign. He ended his quest for the presidency dancing with his wife Margot on a stage in Dallas. The music was the Patsy Cline song, "Crazy." When election results were tallied on the evening of November 3, Perot failed to carry a single state. (He finished second in both Utah and Maine.) The Guide to U.S. Elections lists Perot's overall vote total as 19,741,657, or 18.9% of the total popular vote. It was the strongest showing by a third party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose Party ticket in 1912. It was unclear, however, how Perot would use his new-found electoral power. In early 1993, Perot transformed his party, "United We Stand, America," to a grass-roots, "citizens' watchdog group." Its main purpose for the year was to convince the Democratic congress and President Clinton that the deficit ought to be cut by reducing government spending, not by raising taxes. Perot also led the charge against Senate ratification of the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), designed to reduce trade barriers with Mexico and Canada. Perot stepped up his media campaign against NAFTA with his catchy "giant sucking sound" quip about American jobs being pulled to Mexico. Perot also authored a book (with economist Pat Choate), "Save Your Job, Save Our Country: Why NAFTA Must Be Stopped Now!" On November 9, 1993 Perot debated Vice President Gore on "Larry King Live" on the merits of the treaty. According to most accounts Perot was soundly out-debated by the vice president. The U.S. Senate went on to approve NAFTA by a wide margin on November 20.
In 1994, dissatisfied with the Clinton Administration and the Democratic Congress, Perot urged voters to "send a message" to the federal government by electing Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. Prevented from officially endorsing any candidate because it might jeopardize United We Stand, America's tax status, Perot encouraged UWSA members to support various candidates who were sympathetic to his political positions and sense of government. Perot made no secret of his desire to elect George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who was running against Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley. Perot also made known his preference for Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was running to retain her Senate seat from Texas.
As Newt Gingrich's "revolution" raged in 1995, Perot seemed to shy away from the political limelight, debating whether he ought to take the lead in forming a third political party. Perot convened a conference (referred to by many as Perot's "cattle call") of several thousand members of UWSA in Dallas in August 1995, to address this issue.
Almost as if paying homage to a political king, all the main Republican presidential hopefuls (with the exception of Steve Forbes who had not yet entered the race), Senior White House Adviser Thomas "Mac" McClarty, (President Clinton was invited but declined) and other important political figures (such as Senator Sam Nunn, former Senator and University of Oklahoma President David Boren and Jesse Jackson) addressed the conference. On September 25, 1995, Perot announced on CNN that he would encourage the formation of a third party. With limited time remaining, the new Reform Party did not obtain enough signatures to qualify for several state primary ballots. The Reform Party then announced that it would not compete in any presidential primaries in 1996, but would concentrate on getting on state ballots for the general election.
On March 19, 1996, Perot raised the possibility of another bid for the presidency. He told San Antonio radio station WOAI if he were nominated by the Reform Party, "I would give it everything I have." Perot held the advantage of personal wealth, plus a June 13 FEC ruling allowing him to receive $30 million in federal matching funds if he won the Reform Party nomination. The FEC has not yet ruled whether another Reform party presidential candidate would be eligible for the same amount of matching funds.
On June 20, the Reform Party announced that it would be holding a two-part convention. Members planned to meet in Long Beach, California on August 11 and in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on August 18. These dates serve as bookends to the Republican National Convention which will be held in San Diego from August 12-15. The Long Beach convention will provide candidates with an opportunity "to present their ideas." In the week following the Long Beach conventions, Reform Party members will vote via mail, phone and the internet. The party will then reconvene a week later on August 18 in Valley Forge. It will then nominate a candidate for president based on the tabulations of an independent accounting of the votes. The winning candidate will deliver an acceptance speech during prime media time.
In preparation for the Long Beach convention, ballots were sent out in early July to over 1 million Reform Party members. The ballots asked voters to choose the presidential nominee of the Reform Party. Ross Perot and former Colorado Governor Lamm are referenced in the text of the ballot, but a blank space is left for party members to write in their choice for President. Any candidate receiving 10% or more of the vote will be eligible to address the Long Beach convention.
Defying seemingly formidable odds, former Democratic Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, called a news conference in Denver on July 9 to declare he intended to seek the presidential nomination of the Reform Party. The night following Governor Lamm's announcement, July 10, Perot once again appeared on "Larry King Live" and declared he was "uniquely qualified" to lead the Reform Party and will run for president if the party nominates him.
During the beginning of his new presidential candidacy, Ross Perot soon found his poll numbers quickly slipping by Labor Day, after the Republican National Convention. The common conception was, as the Republicans said with their propaganda, that Ross Perot wouldn’t win, and that you shouldn’t waste your vote on his candidacy. During this time, Ross Perot struggled to retain press attention, making numerous appearances in infocommercials on topics such as tax reform and entitlements reform. In one commercial, he declared the need to abolish the IRS, and replace it with a new tax system.
Later in the candidacy, Ross Perot announced that his running mate would be the economist Pat Choate, who he had previously written a book with, and who had staunch anti-NAFTA views. Pat Choate, however, due to his lack of visibility in the public eye, failed to activate support for the Reform Party. Ross Perot reportedly asked several others, such as David Boren, and Representative Marcy Kaptur for the running mate position, but they had refused as they had not desired to give up their current positions.
A great blow came to his presidential campaign when the Commission for the Presidential Debates sought to exclude him from participating in the televised debates for the election year. Ross Perot attempted to sue the debates commission, as the FEC ruling on the matter would be after the presidential election, but his attempt was thwarted by the judge who said the matter was "out of his jurisdiction." However, over 75% of Americans declared unanimously that they wanted Ross Perot in the presidential debates. Their voices, however, were not heard. Many blamed Bob Dole, who had worked actively to keep Ross Perot out of the debates. Ross Perot came to St. Louis for a campaign stop, where Bob Dole had been, at the site of a canceled debate. Ross Perot had challenged Bob Dole to a debate, but Bob Dole ignored him as he was beleaguered by activists calling him a "chicken" as he left St. Louis in the morning.
Late in the campaign, reports were leaked into the media that Bob Dole’s campaign had made overtures to the Perot campaign in asking Perot to drop out of the race and support Bob Dole. Ross Perot had never significantly considered the matter, but it gave him renewed visibility in the media and a re-legitimized campaign. Ross Perot used the media attention to hammer away at the issue of campaign finance reform. He pointed at President Bill Clinton’s funding scandals and corruption in the two political parties. This constant hammering nearly doubled his poll numbers to 11% in the last week of the campaign. Perot’s showing in the election was around 9%, half of that in 1992.
In the beginning of 1997, Perot faced of criticisms and attacks from members of an internal splinter group in the Reform Party called the "Shaumberg group." At the national convention in Nashville, many of these dissidents had threatened to leave the party as the two sides grew with division. In the meantime, Ross Perot, attempting to buy television time for a campaign finance reform infocommercial, was refused by all of the networks.
