This coverage is part of the Center's extensive campaign research on the Presidential Election 2000. For more information, see
The Buying of the President 2000.

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Pat Buchanan's switch to the Reform Party on Oct. 25, 1999, was a dramatic change in the fiery commentator's political life. A lifelong conservative Republican who had served in both the Nixon and Reagan White Houses, Buchanan was a stalwart of the GOP's social conservative movement and a legitimate, albeit fringe, contender for the Republican presidential nominations in both 1992 and 1996.

But his campaign for the GOP's 2000 presidential nomination was not going well. The institutional momentum behind George W. Bush was siphoning precious campaign cash from all other candidates, and Buchanan faced significant challenges from Gary Bauer and Malcolm "Steve" Forbes for the conservative Christian vote, upon which his campaign traditionally relied. The outlook for the Republican nomination looked bleak.

At a press conference announcing his bid for the Reform Party's nomination, Buchanan cited ideological reasons for leaving the Republican Party he had so long supported. "Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey," he said. "Neither fights today with conviction and courage to rescue God's country from the cultural and moral pit into which she has fallen." 

Tactical, Not Ideological

In fact, Buchanan's move to the Reform Party was much more tactical than ideological. The Reform Party nominee will inherit close to $13 million in federal matching funds, far more than Buchanan had managed to qualify for on his own . Given the lack of other serious candidates for the Reform nomination, Buchanan is virtually assured of the money, and will compete in the general election in November, the first time he will have made it past the spring's primary season.

What's more, Buchanan's choice of campaign co-chairs for his Reform bid, especially that of an ultra-left-wing progressive, bucks his conservative ideology in favor of political expediency. For a candidate so well-known for refusing to give up reactionary views in favor of increased mainstream appeal, Buchanan's 2000 Reform campaign has constructed a coalition of advisers that is politically opportunistic and ideologically hypocritical.

The Advisers

'It's a Very, Very Tight Circle'
The Four-Headed Hydra
  The Loyal Sister
  The Detached Chairman
  The Economic Nationalist
  Who Would Have Thought? 
Strong-Arm Tactics 
Long History 
Best Friends Again

Related Links: (Links will open in new browser window):

• Reform Party leader resigns, cites family illness (Associated Press, May 6)
• Pat Buchanan lost much of his social conservative base when he bolted the GOP and now has alienated many Reform Party supporters - including some state leaders, who prefer the party run nobody and forfeit $12.6 million in federal funding. (Associated Press, May 19)
   

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