Shut out of presidential debates and hovering around 5 percent in the polls, Ross Perot plans to ask the Federal Election Commission to release him from the $50,000 personal spending limit he agreed to in accepting $29 million in federal campaign funds.
“If they are going to keep us out of the debates because we are not spending as much as we did in 1992, we will ask the Federal Election Commission to remove the limitation,” Russell Verney, national coordinator of the Perot campaign, said Thursday.
Verney referred to a letter from the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates’ advisory committee in which Perot’s campaign budget was noted as a reason to exclude him from the debates. In his 1992 campaign, the letter noted, Perot’s ability to draw on his multibillion-dollar fortune was a significant factor in concluding he had a realistic chance of winning.
Having a “realistic chance of winning” is one of 11 criteria in deciding who will be included in the debates. “We see no similar circumstances at the present time,” the letter read.
Janet Brown, executive director of the commission, said the Perot campaign was misinterpreting the letter.
“What the committee took into account was that in 1992 Mr. Perot spent more than twice what he is spending this year–when he is lower in the polls–and he won no electoral votes,” she said.
A Federal Election Commission spokesmen would not comment other than to say that to his knowledge such a request was unprecedented. Verney said the request would be filed with the FEC next week.
The campaign also plans to file a federal lawsuit seeking to halt the debates until Perot is included, though legal experts say the suit has little hope of success.
Without exposure to the millions of voters who will watch the debates, Perot’s hopes of breaking out of single digits in the polls and having a shot at approaching his ’92 showing of 19 percent appear fainter than ever.
Exclusion from the debates also would be a blow to Perot’s credibility. The commission’s recommendation relegated him to the status of other third-party candidates who hover at the edge of presidential campaigns every four years.
Perot has not said whether he would accept a CNN offer of time following each debate to appear with presidential candidates Ralph Nader of the Green Party, Harry Browne of the Libertarians, John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party and Howard Phillips of the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party.
Verney also said Perot has had trouble buying prime-time blocks on the four major networks for his trademark “infomercials,” which he has used in lieu of traditional campaigning.
“He has lost three-quarters of his audience,” said Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University who wrote a 1993 book on political advertising.
“Because of the profusion of cable channels, people have so many more viewing options now than they did in 1992. He is not just competing against ABC, NBC and CBS. He is competing against 50 other channels. People are voting with their remote controls.”
Analysts believe Perot may have to reconsider his strategy if he wants to emerge with a respectable showing for his fledgling Reform Party on Nov. 5.
Pollster Gordon Black, who worked with Perot briefly in ’92, suggested that Perot should use the commission’s decision as a club against the Democrats and Republicans, showing up at the debates with crowds of supporters and buying television time to proclaim, ” `Here’s what the Republicans and Democrats don’t want you to hear.’ The only strategy is to make his exclusion part of the strategy,” Black said.
Others say Perot will have to rethink his message and run a more traditional campaign.
Unlike in 1992, this campaign is spread over two months instead of one. Also instead of using his own wealth to buy all the advertising he wants, he is limited to the $29 million in the taxpayer-contributed federal election funds he accepted last month, plus any additional contributions that do not come from his own pockets.
Dole and Clinton have far richer campaign chests to begin with, an advantage some estimate at between two and three times over what Perot has to spend.
In ’92, Perot spent nearly $36 million of his own money in the first three weeks of October alone, and even before the first debate Oct. 11 of that year, his first infomercial drew viewers in 11.1 million homes.
By comparison, Perot’s highest-drawing infomercial thus far came on Sept. 8, when viewers in 4.8 million homes tuned to NBC at 6 p.m. CDT.
