Lamm Says Reform Party Rules May Be Unfair

DENVER (AllPolitics, July 23) -- The deadlines are soft and the rules ever-changing in the race for the Reform Party's presidential nomination, says former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm. That, he says, makes campaigning not just difficult but possibly unfair.

"It's like playing chess and all of a sudden I'm making up the rules as I go along, I mean you just can't change the rules as you go along," said Lamm in an interview with The Associated Press.

As late as Saturday, Lamm said he was getting a fair shake in the party founded by his main opponent, billionaire Ross Perot. But party officials refused Monday to give Lamm the mailing list of the party's 1.3 million members, even though Lamm was promised the list earlier, he said.

Russ Verney, the party's national coordinator, said handing the list over to Lamm would count as a campaign contribution and thereby violate campaign financing limits. The list cost $4 million to compile, he said.

But Verney said Lamm was welcome to contact party members through a Chicago-based mailing house, insisting the former governor has been treated "fairly, openly and equally."

Candidates were supposed to know by Thursday the results of mail-in nominating petitions, though party officials are accepting ballots past the deadline because many members didn't receive ballots on time. Officials say they will notify candidates whenever the counting is done.

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Lamm Says Reform Party Rules May Be Unfair

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