Nov. 1,1997
People from 23 states attended the October 3-5, 1997 convention in Schaumburg, IL, where the American Reform Party (ARP) was formed. State party organizations from 11 of those states are now recognized by the ARP and seated on the ARP national committee. Organizations from all 23 states are expected to be seated in the near future. Additional state party organizations are known to be interested in the ARP but were not present at the Schaumburg convention. Those organizations are also expected to be seated in the near future.
The status of the ARP state affiliates varies from state to state. Some are well-established organizations with thousands of members and full ballot access. Some consist of people who were once part of the Reform Party but have now departed to build the ARP. Others are organizing state ARP affiliates by reactivating their old UWSA network of friends. In at least one state, people who had no prior connection with Perot or his party are now organizing an ARP state affiliate.
It is worthy of note that former Perot voters outnumber current Perot voters, and that beyond the Reform Party itself, public sentiment for a third major party remains strong. In 1992, 19% of the voters (19,217,213) voted for Perot, in 1996, only 8% (8,085,402) did so. The ex-Perot voter block includes over 11,000,000 voters. Even if all 1996 Perot voters supported Perot and the national Reform Party today (they don't), the American Reform Party has the larger base from which to build a viable major national party.
The American Reform Party already has some highly successful state party affiliates in its national organization. Now free of the political negatives and dictatorial control Perot and his supporters bring to the Reform Party, the American Reform Party is working to establish successful state parties nationwide.
ARP organizations are now building state party units from the following constituent groups:
- Independent centrist voters who want the political reforms we seek and believe a third major party is needed but will have nothing to do with Perot and have never been affiliated with Perot, UWSA, or the Reform Party. This segment of the electorate is an untapped group that dwarfs the ARP and Perot's party combined, and the Democratic and Republican parties separately.
- Former UWSA members who quit because of the dictatorial practices and leadership incompetencies that led to the demise of that organization.
- Former Reform Party members who quit because of Perot's usurpation of the party nomination process.
- Former Perot voters.
- Current Reform Party members who want to be part of a free-standing, self-governing, democracy-based national political party.
- The large body of citizens who no longer vote.
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