Reform Party in MN making inroads.
Marianne Combs, 8/13/96

Much of campaign rhetoric centers around the capitol, whether it's the nation's capitol or in St. Paul. But for any issue or any party to gain support, it needs to reach the people outside the walls of the capitol.

It's hard to predict from one election to the next how the Minnesota Electorate will vote. History Professor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth Roger Fisher says Minnesota voters have a long-running independent streak:

- And this isn't just true in the cities where Minnesota don't vote very much. But in the suburbs and the countryside where the voter turnout is always very very good." 9secs

Critics claim the Reform party wont be able to gather the voter support it needs to have an impact because its platform is based on a legislative issue - balancing the budget - not a local concern that affects voters in their day to day lives.

- Every single minor party that ever became major party had one compelling issue that made it so. The Republicans might still be meeting in a barn in Rippon Wisconsin had it not been for their resolve to prevent the spread of slavery into the Western Territories. Now I don't knowif a balanced budget is worth going to war for politically - it lacks the glitz of other causes and it lacks the mean gut appeal of abortion." (30 secs)

"The budget of course is critical...

Reform Party Chair Don Anderson.

...no question, if we continue to spend as though there's no tomorrow, there will not be a tomorrow that we'd like to see." 9secs

Anderson argues balancing the budget IS a local issue, no matter where you live:

- that's just as much an issue at the level of city council as it is anyplace else... saying 'are we spending our money wisely? are we encouraging the necessary growth of jobs as oppsed to welfare?' things like that." (14 secs)

Anderson says such local concerns are helping to win Reform Party support from voters in Greater Minnesota. Since January 1st the party has grown from 600 members to 7000 members. The strongest support outside of the twin cities comes from the 1st Congressional District in southeastern Minnesota, home to the Mayo Clinic, IBM and thousands of fiscally conservative voters. 1st district Reform Party Chair Adrienne Breiner is a retired music teacher and a former Republican activist. Breiner attended the 1994 state Republican convention, where delegates condemned Governor Arne Carlson for being out of touch with the issues and the voters. Governor Carlson proceeded to sweep the electorate:

- And I just decided then and there that maybe it was the Republican Party and their delegates that were out of touch with the voters." 7secs

Breiner says she can't yet guage the support her party has in her district - she wont know until election time. She says it's hard trying to rally support for a party that's catering to the disillusioned, disenfranchised and apathetic voters:

- One of the challenges of the party is to motivate the middle of the road voter or the average voter to actually get out there and vote cuz so many people are just turned off with politics that they dont want to have anything to do with it." 13 secs

Still, many political candidates see the "average voter" as an untapped gold mine, and they see the Reform Party as an easy way to gain access to those voters. Although the Reform Party has tried to distance itself from the two big parties, it's ended up endorsing some of their candidates. Democrat Mary Rieder is running for the 1st District US congressional seat held by Republican Gil Gutknecht. She actively sought the Reform Party's endorsement - and got it:

- When I first started my race for the U-S Congressional seat I looked at the results from 1992 and here in the 1st district Bill Clinton got 38% of the vote, Ross Perot got 27% of the vote and George Bush got 35% of the vote. So I looked at that and I said if I can fold the Clinton voters, which I think I should have a very good chance of doing, and get HALF of the Ross Perot voters, I could WIN." 25 secs

Rieder - an economist - says the Reform Party is an easy fit. Indeed the Reform Party platform closely fits the voting records of many politicians already in office, including Governor Arne Carlson, who has received Reform Party endorsement. But while politicians see the third party as a vehicle for new and improved government, some voters see it as just another voice in the continuing legislative squabble. In Moorhead, where the Reform Party has yet to find someone to be their district chair ((I think this is important, but could become outdated in the coming week)), opinions about a third party range from supportive to reserved to disinterested:

"Never gave it much thought - I suppose, the more the merrier!" "We need something because what we've got in St. Paul now should be gotten rid of. If we could get a good independedt party that would do something for the state of Minnesota, I'd be all for it." "Probably wouldn't hurt. Maybe give the other parties a little something to think about. Maybe...it doesnt hurt I think to have other people, other options."

The Reform Party, fiscally conservative and socially ambiguous, has the potential to reach a huge cross-section of Minnesota voters. But as History Professor Roger Fisher says, Minnesota voters have a mean independent streak:

- I would guess right now in the state of Minnesota probably three voters out ten are pretty well locked-in to a vote for Bill Clinton and Paul Wellstone... and probably two out of every ten for Bob Dole and Rudy Boschwitz. And half of the people have yet to make up their mind. There is an awful lot of volatility out there among average voters today - there's disgust and there's volatility." In Rochester I'm Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio.