Three's a Crowd: The Dynamic of Third Parties, Ross Perot, and Republican Resurgence

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments c1P ACKNOWLEDGING THE MANY DEBTS we have acculllulated during the years we have worked on this project is a pleasure, not only because writing these words of thanks means we no longer have to endure questions about when the "Perot book" will be finished. This project has taken lllany twists and turns since we began in the summer of 1992 with a national survey of potential volunteers in the emerging Perot movement . Throughout the project we have been fortunate to have the assistance and support of an ever increasing set of friends, colleagues, family members, and party leaders and officials in completillg this book. Without the willingness of individuals in our samples of potential Perot activists and party contributors to participate in repeated \vaves of surveys between 1992-2000, our research would not have been possible. Brad Harris, our first contact in the Perot campaign, deserves credit for suggesting we sample from the hundreds of thousands of callers to the toll-tree number set up by the Perot campaign in 1992. Clay Mulford, who was involved from the campaign's inception and was campaign chair when Perot reentered the race in October 1992, helped us to secure the 1992 sample as ,Nell as a 1996 sample of Reform Party contributors. We owe a debt of thanks also to the Democratic and Republican national committees (and particularly to Janice Knopp and Albert Mitchler at the RNC and Don Fowler and Faith Brown of the DNe) for supplying us with parallel national samples of m~or-party contributors. As the project proceeded, we conducted in-depth interviews with relevant participants. Clay Mulford increased our indebtedness to him by x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS agreeing to be the first to provide crucial information about the 1992 Perot campaign. Jack Gargan, Perot's first volunteer and the last chair of the Reform Party before Pat Buchanan's campaign in 2000, was also a great resource. Others were also generous with their time and information. Dave Sackett, of Lance Tarrance Associates; Joe Gaylord, one of the architects ofthe Contract with America; Congressman Bill Paxon and Maria Cino, respectively former chair and executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee; and Bill McClintock of William McClintock Associates aided our understanding of the 1994 election campaign and its outcome. Nancy Rodriguez, treasurer ofVirginians for Perot in 1992; Orson Swindle, the first chair of United We Stand America and an advisor to the McCain campaign; Rick Davis,John McCain's campaign manager; CliffArnebeck, former chair, Coalition to End the Permanent Congress; and Bill Mcinturff, McCain's pollster, gave us important insights linking the Perot and McCain campaigns. Our ability to conduct the surveys would not have been possible without the generous assistance of the National Science Foundation, which awarded us three research grants in support ofthis project along with several supplemental and Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) awards (SES-92II432; SBR-94I0869; SES-9987446). Data Recognition Corporation provided excellent service with our surveys under the watchful eyes ofDeanna Hudella, CarmenWilson, andJulie Roles, whose professionalism, care, and good humor we probably took too much for granted. We also had generous support from the College ofWilliam and Mary, the University of Colorado, and the University of California, Davis. We are grateful to the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado for providing us and our graduate students office space and facilitating our collaboration over seven years when the Rapoport family summered in Boulder.Walt Stone is also grateful to Stanford University's Department of Political Science and the Hoover Institution at Stanford for support and space during an extended leave. We were blessed with a dedicated group of graduate and undergraduate students, from and with whom we learned a great deal. Colorado stu- Acknowledgments Xl dents who worked on this project were Lonna Atkeson, Paul Gentile, Patricia Jaramillo, Jennifer Koester, Jay McCann, Randall Partin, David Ungemah, and Lori Weber. On the William and Mary side Brian Berg, Will Blake, Karen Bruner, Mark Burton, Stephanie Caucutt, Brent Colburn , Lauren Fasler, Rachel Fitzgerald, Will Gomaa, Jonathan Kajeckas, John Kauffinan, Elizabeth Leon, Doug McNamara, Kris Miler, Richard Perry, Jonathan Pierpan, Jon Rodger, Brian Spang and Andy Tomlinson provided important assistance. Greg Pastor has the distinction ofbeing the only student at both Colorado and William and Mary. Other student assistance came from Lydia Tolles (Stanford) and Ryan Claassen, Monique Schneider, and Jennifer Soares (UC Davis). Although not a student, Patricia Rapoport spent...