The man behind Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign is offering Elon Musk advice on building a third-party following the announcement Musk is creating what he calls the America Party.
Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, ran on Reform Party ticket in 1992, and garnered about 19 percent of the popular vote, helping former President Bill Clinton oust then-President George H.W. Bush. In 1996, Perot received close to 8.5 percent of the vote.
His 1992 effort is the most successful independent bid for the presidency in modern history.
Perot’s Reform Party also elevated former wrestler Jesse Ventura to become the governor of Minnesota for a term between 1999 and 2003. At the time, Ventura was the first Reform Party candidate in the nation to win a statewide office.
Russell Verney, a former chair of the Reform Party, advised Perot, and wasn’t optimistic about Musk’s political future when speaking to Politico.
“It’s not something you do by posting on Twitter that you have a political party. It takes a lot more work than that,” he told the outlet.
Perot’s push for deficit reduction changed the political landscape and fueled Clinton’s efforts to achieve a balanced budget. Musk could achieve similar results.
“My basic advice is: Go to rehab and then focus on creating a new political party from a position of seriousness, not of anger, not of retribution, not of retaliation,” said Verney.
The former Perot adviser argued Musk isn’t actually creating a political party.
“He’s creating a political committee that is going to encourage people to run and may make independent expenditures on their behalf,” Verney told Politico. “A political party essentially has a big structure, and the most important asset of a political body is ballot access — in other words, the right to place the name of its candidate on the general election ballot. Musk doesn’t have that.”
.jpg)
Verney went on to note that while candidates themselves will need to get ballot access Musk can “assist” them in doing so.
“Third parties don’t have to win to be effective,” said Verney, recounting how Perot explained deficit spending and the national debt to the public.
President Clinton balanced the budget for the first time since the Eisenhower administration, he noted. It hasn’t been balanced since those two years during the Clinton administration.
“That was the result of the support Perot got,” said Verney.
The former Reform Party chair said political candidates only care about elections and, as such, want to “co-opt” the voters attracted by a position, such as reducing the deficit and the national debt.
“All candidates really stand for is elections. It’s not about progress. It’s not about making America great. It’s just about elections,” he said.
Verney said Musk can have a “big impact” on both the Republicans and the Democrats if his candidates “start coming up with a coherent message and start showing some support.”
You can only petition the Federal Election Commission to become a national party after getting ballot access in enough states. And to get ballot access in many states, you have to get votes, Verney argued.
“The Reform Party did that. The Libertarian Party did that. There are lots of others that have tried and failed,” he said.
