Perot Says He Might Run

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 18) -- After offering up some tantalizing signals in recent weeks, Texas billionaire Ross Perot said today he would run for president again if his Reform Party members want him to.

Perot told WOAI radio in San Antonio, Tex., that the Republican and Democratic parties were equally to blame for "government shutdowns, (budget) train wrecks and propaganda."

"Let's assume the dust clears and that's (his candidacy) what the members of this party want," Perot said. "Then certainly, I would give it everything I have, because probably there's not a luckier person alive in this country today."

Aides have been working to get Perot's name on the ballot in several states, but Perot had suggested he could be a stand-in candidate until the embryonic political party selected a presidential candidate in the summer.

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, released Monday, shows Perot finishing a distant third behind President Bill Clinton and Sen. Robert Dole in a hypothetical three-way match up. In the survey, 46 percent supported Clinton, 36 percent Dole and 16 percent Perot. In 1992, Perot received 19 percent but failed to carry a single state.

Dole told the Associated Press he hopes Perot stays out of the race. "I just hope they let us have a two-person race, and we can both go out and try to attract the Perot voters," Dole said.

Perot plans several local radio and TV interviews this week to promote the ballot access drive. He is scheduled to appear Friday on CNN's "Larry King Live."

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