But what’s new about Perot isn’t his public ridicule of presidents. He was just as cruel to George Bush last year. The real news about Perot is the machine he’s quietly building behind the scenes. Called United We Stand America, Inc., it is unlike anything ever seen in American politics. It is not a political party, campaign committee or money-dispensing PAC. And it is not merely the spontaneous grass-roots organization it purports to be. Rather, Perot is building a secretive, highly centralized force that quickly connects the commander-Perot-with frontline troops through the latest in computer and communications technology. “He’s creating what I call I virtual community’,” says Illinois pollster Mike McKeon. “It’s for communication, not campaigning.” Perhaps. More likely,, given Perot’s limitless ambition, it may be just the structure he needs for a different kind of campaign–one aimed at the White House in 1996. In a joint project, encompassing dozens of interviews with present and former UWSA members, employees and advisers, NEWSWEEK and ABC News “Nightline” have found that:
UWSA is a carefully crafted legal entity-a not-for-profit “civic league”-that allows Perot to raise funds and act the role of an undeclared candidate without having to disclose his list of Contributors. According to election-law experts, only Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson have used this organizational tactic.
The organization, while fueled by grass-roots energy, is tightly directed from the top by Perot and a handful of lieutenants in Dallas. The only board members-at least for now-are Perot, his son-in-law Clayton Ross Mulford, and his financial adviser, Mike Poss.
As Perot seeks to find a loyal core of local leaders for UWSA, former Perot movement officials in nearly a score of states have left in frustration, accusing Perot and his aides of dictatorial methods.
I Privately, Perot insiders say their goal is to amass the names and numbers of at least 10,000 UWSA members in each of the nation’s 435 congressional districts. What will Perot do with these lists? Perot himself refused repeated requests to be interviewed for this report. But NEWSWEEK and “Nightline” have learned that one faction of insiders wants him to use UWSA to endorse candidates next year and furnish them with lists as a fund-raising source and organizational tool. Perot is considering this notion, but other political observers think that only he will ever use the lists-for an inevitable second run for the White House. “He’s not going to risk any political capital on anyone else,” says one influential Democratic strategist.
Perot is making headway with Republicans. House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich has sent in his $15 membership fee to UWSA, though he isn’t advertising the fact. This week Rep. John Doolittle of California will become the first member of Congress to swear open allegiance to Perot and the UWSA agenda.
Perot is also gaining strength with the public at large. In a new ABC-NEWSWEEK Poll, Perot continues to run neck and neck with Clinton in a presidential trial heat.
Perot’s shiny new organization has in fact been germinating in his mind for the past two decades. There’s something eerily familiar about a black-and-white videotape from 1970 dug up by the NEWSWEEK “Nightline” investigation. On the tape, a young Texas billionaire says he has new ideas about how to get people “deeply involved” in public issues. He has a group called United We Stand, he says, to “arouse and inform the American people.” To communicate with them, he wants to stage “electronic town halls” on television. “The people we care about most have just tuned everything out,” he declares.
That was then: a 39-year-old Ross Perot on ABC News with John Scali and a young correspondent named Ted Koppel. United We Stand folded in the early 1970s. The name also was used for Perot’s campaign committee last year.
Perot likes to tell his aides that the trick is to “think outside the box”-to junk the conventional way of doing things and look for new approaches. “Nothing about Perot is traditional,” says former Perot polltaker Frank Luntz. “Just remember that.” Perot’s model for UWSA is his old company, Electronic Data Systems, and the rapid-strike military. The keys are a very short chain of command and a tight control of information. In California, UWSA officials have required subordinates to sign a “confidentiality agreement.” There is only a small circle of loyal lieutenants connecting headquarters in Dallas with voters in the field. Many of these insiders, derisively dubbed the “white shirts” by disaffected Perotians, share Perot’s own history: computer-service business and military-academy training. Energy and ideas come from the grass roots; tactical control from the top.
Boy Scouts:It’s a formula that could work in the disaffected ’90s. As political parties fade and the “national” media fragment, only those with a disciplined organization can take center stage. Perot does listen closely to the public mood. He has paid for a series of polls, which tend to jibe with his own agenda: sweeping deficit reduction, balanced-budget amendment, line-item veto, term limits, lobbying bans. He likely will stage more electronic town halls once he gets his UWSA network running. Its data bank, the white shirts hope, will have perhaps 5 million names by the end of 1993. UWSA’s third infomercial of this year, starring Perot, aired last Sunday-an 800-number plea for new members attached. In it, Perot vehemently attacked the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement, even though Perot’s own son, Ross Jr.-and many UWSA members–support it.
But for all his populist sensitivity, Perot tolerates no dissent in the ranks. Only Dallas can license the use of UWSA’s name. A top Perot priority is to place a carefully vetted and well-paid director at the head of every state UWSA organization. That means jettisoning many grassroots leaders from last year’s campaign, and angering others who think they deserve the paying job. “We’re going through growing pains,” said UWSA executive director Darcy Anderson, a West Point grad and former recruiter in Perot’s computer-service business who personally interviews and chooses the new directors.
But former Perot movement leaders in nearly a score of states, NEWSWEEK and ABC found, have left the organization in frustration. “I’d characterize it as almost to the point of being a dictatorship,” said one former state officer, Wally Howard. “There’s nothing flowing from the bottom up to reflect the concerns of people.”
To pump up what some Dallas sources say is a lagging membership drive, and test his new machine, Perot hits the road each weekend in meticulously planned forays, five stops over three days. At each rally, volunteers and aides, each wearing badges that indicate their rank (one star for the lowest, four for Dallas brass), tend to good order. A strict format is followed: Boy Scouts, POW-MIA and veterans groups near the stage; a color guard; a singing group that knows the words to “Crazy,” Perot’s tongue-in-cheek personal theme song. On each chair at each rally, supporters place an “Ask Ross” form that solicits questions for The Boss. The audiences are respectful, but not rabid: well-informed, well-dressed folks who seem to like Perot’s message better than the man himself. Perot speaks for 90 minutes-and departs before taking questions.
Growing impatience:And Perot’s army can move quickly. When Dallas insiders got word of “Nightline’s” interest in UWSA, Anderson faxed state leaders a heads-up, warning that the show might take a negative slant" and requesting that UWSA members call ABC with positive stories about UWSA “accomplishments in your state.” Within hours the show’s switchboard in Washington was immobilized by incoming calls. ABC producers begged UWSA officials to desist-and the lines cleared.
In the White House, impatience with Perot is growing. For the first time last week, Clintonites hit the talk shows to denounce Perot. They’ve set up a “Perot working group” to study his ways and weaknesses. The Clinton administration may lack focus, but the president’s political advisers know that sooner or later, they will have to target Ross Perot.
Their best hope may be Perot’s aversion to sunshine. He abruptly dropped out of the 1992 race when the press began poking around his family and business history. If he enters the 1996 race, reporters would swarm all over his organization. What they reveal would inevitably make Perot look less like a man of the people-and more like The Man.
Should Congress pass Clinton’s economic package pretty much as he has proposed it?
31% Yes 53% No Do you personally expect to pay more in federal income taxes next year? 74% Yes 21% No For which of the following would you approve of federal tax increases for people like yourself ? 67% Reform and expand health care 60% Reduce the deficit 56% Fund programs to stimulate the economy For this NEWSWEEK Poll, The Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed a national sample of 750 adults by telephone May 26-27. Margin of error is +/-4 percentage points. “Don’t know” and other responses not shown.
