United We Stand

Congressional representatives have played fast and loose with taxpayers' money for too long, and they aren't going to get away with it anymore, says a group of Harford County voters.About 400 Harford County residents have paid $15 each to join United We Stand, America, the fledgling national organization headed by ex-presidential candidate Ross Perot.They want to foster voter education in the county by distributing voting records of members of Congress. They want to focus voter attention on serious economic and social issues affecting the United States.

DALLAS -- President Clinton tried to enlist former opponent Ross Perot in his economic call to arms. He telephoned the Dallas businessman to pitch his ideas for cutting the deficit and stimulating growth.Mr. Perot said later he thought Mr. Clinton's speech yesterday to Congress was "very positive.""I would expect the American people to react very favorably to it," Mr. Perot said on ABC's "Nightline," about two hours after the xTC president outlined his plan in a nationally televised address.

Ross Perot returned to the political arena this week, denying ** he is planning to run for president in 1996 and denying he wants to turn his United We Stand, America organization into a third party.No doubt both are true, but as every schoolchild knows, the road to presidential candidacies is often paved with changed intentions. Bill Clinton promised Arkansas in 1990 that if re-elected governor he would not run for president in 1992.Mr. Perot sounded like a political party leader and potential presidential candidate in his remarks Monday.

WASHINGTON -- Ross Perot's grass-roots organization, financed by him before and after he returned to the 1992 presidential race, will launch a massive membership drive early next month aimed at making itself self-supporting -- but still dedicated to his views and, possibly, another Perot presidential bid in 1996.Orson Swindle, the retired Marine officer and former prisoner of war who became executive director and spokesman for the 1992 Perot campaign, says the membership effort, charging $15 a year, will be aimed at the 19 million Americans who voted for Perot "and the millions more who would have voted for him had they thought he could win."

WASHINGTON -- Ross Perot, who spent more than $60 million of his own money to promote his independent run for the White House, said yesterday that he plans to continue financial support for his political movement but was not yet ready to launch a formal third party.In an interview on ABC-TV's "20/20" program broadcast last night, the Dallas billionaire said that formation of a third party was "premature" because the next congressional elections were two years off.He also said that he would urge his supporters to work within the system to force President-elect Bill Clinton and Congress to reduce the deficit and reform the political process.

DALLAS -- The colorful political odyssey of independent candidate Ross Perot came to a close last night with the Texas billionaire vowing that, even with a third-place finish, this was "just the beginning" for his grass-roots political movement."

LOS ANGELES -- Unfazed by their hero's mid-July retreat as an undeclared presidential candidate, supporters of Texas billionaire Ross Perot are getting ready to celebrate a unique political achievement -- filing of an independent candidacy in all 50 states.That feat, according to Bob Hayden, a Ventura engineer who heads the Perot "United We Stand America" grass-roots effort in California, should be accomplished by week's end with the addition of the last state, Arizona.The achievement falls far short, however, of the grandiose hopes of Mr. Hayden and the millions of others who took Mr. Perot at his word earlier this year when he told them he would run if they got him onto the ballot in all 50 states.