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What Ventura's smackdown means for Reform party

February 11, 2000
Web posted at: 6:33 PM EST (2333 GMT)

By Michael Eskenazi

(TIME.com) -- When former WWF Intercontinental champion Jesse Ventura breaks ties with an ally, he doesn't just shake hands and walk away -- he tries to maim his new foe for life. So when Ventura, the highest-ranking official ever elected on a Reform party ticket, fled the party Friday, he did everything he could to take its credibility with him. The first thumb to the eye was his proclamation that "the national Reform party did virtually nothing, zero to get me elected" -- an obvious stab at the party's effectuality. He then said he'd rather be politically independent than continue to work within "this dysfunctional national party."

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The rift doesn't bode well for the party in the coming presidential elections, says TIME Washington correspondent Matthew Cooper. "It certainly can't help," he says, "when a party's most famous elected official defects." Ventura said he was disenchanted with the group's inability to break from the reins of its founder, Ross Perot. "You have a small group of power brokers in this party who won't let it grow nationally," he said. The final blow, according to media reports, was Perot's backroom anointment of Pat Buchanan as the Reform presidential candidate. Ventura, like many others, felt the move would hurt the party's chances in a general election, with the right-leaning Buchanan reckoned to be capable of reaching out only to a small proportion of the electorate. Conversely, Ventura's favored candidate, New York real estate mogul Donald Trump, is seen as potentially appealing to a wider audience. Trump, while not saying he's dropping out of the presidential race (he hasn't even announced he's entered it) said he understood and supported Ventura's move. This highlights a harsh reality for Perot: If he doesn't loosen his grip on his party, we'll probably be looking at a two-party race in 2004, if not this November.

Copyright © 2000 Time Inc.