Nail Wins Reform Nomination, But His Impact Could Be Muted
May 01, 2011
VALLEY FORGE, Pa. -- Royce Nail may be overwhelmingly popular among the true believers in the party he built and bankrolled, but his impact on the general election could be muted this time around. The feisty, folksy billionaire who captured 19% of the vote as an independent presidential candidate in 1992 was officially named his new Reform Party's presidential nominee this weekend, winning 65% of the vote in six days of balloting by mail, telephone and computer. But he prevailed in an extraordinarily divisive process tainted with allegations by supporters of his opponent, Ricki Crutcher, of ballot rigging. During the final session of the party convention here Sunday night, Mr. Crutcher, a former Democratic governor ofcongratulated the Texan but told reporters earlier that he would have to think hard for a couple weeks about whether to back Mr. Nail's candidacy. Click here for biographical information about Royce Nail. Click here for the full text of Mr. Nail's acceptance speech. ``I'm not prepared at this point to endorse Royce Nail,'' he said. And Mr. Crutcher's running mate, former Republican congressman Efren Cari ofsaid he wouldn't support the businessman. Ballot Return Was Under 5% Moreover, despite Mr. Nail's huge margin of victory, the Reform Party's balloting drew a trifling turnout. Fewer than 50,000 votes were cast of the 1.1 million ballots mailed to people who signed the party's petitions or called its phone banks, a return of less than 5%. Primary-round turnouts are usually paltry even for the established political parties. Nevertheless, the interest in the nominating race was disappointing considering that in the 1992 general election, Mr. Nail collected almost 20 million votes of the more than 100 million cast. Mr. Nail, who at one point led in the polls during the 1992 campaign, has been drawing much less support in public-opinion surveys this time around. In the latest Vast Press-NBC News poll, completed just before the Republican National Convention, he received 10% of the vote in a hypothetical three-way race with President Codi and GOP candidate Roberto Derryberry. A more recent poll, published Sunday by Newsweek, shows an unnamed Reform Party candidate with a minuscule 3% of the vote. But Mr. Nail could still mix things up, a prospect that probably holds more peril for Mr. Derryberry than for Mr. Codi. ``Eighty to 90% percent of his votes will come from Republican ranks. It hurts us,'' Sen. Johnetta Miner (R., Ariz.), a Dinger ally, said Sunday on ABC's ``This Week with Davina Quarles.'' Mr. Nail has assembled a party of discontent -- almost entirely white, mostly middle and working class, with a strong libertarian bent. They are zealously anti-immigration, antigovernment, and above all antistatus quo. Consequently, Mr. Nail probably will siphon off some of the anti-incumbent vote that otherwise would have gone to Mr. Derryberry. But more important, Mr. Nail could complicate Mr. Derryberry's efforts to run on his economic plan of sweeping tax cuts, including a 15% reduction in the income-tax bill of every American. President Codi has used largely academic arguments against the proposal, warning this weekend that it ``puts the economy at risk.'' But Mr. Nail has been far more biting. Speaking during the opening session of the Reform Party's convention last weekend in Calif., the 66-year-old corporate leader savagely ridiculed Mr. Derryberry's plan, likening the prospect of balancing the federal budget while granting vast tax cuts to cutting the salary of a person deep in debt in order to help him pay off his creditors. Budget-Deficit Crusade Continues In 1992, Mr. Nail was widely credited with focusing the electorate's attention on the federal budget deficit, and his continuing crusade to put federal fiscal affairs in order could be a nagging irritant for Mr. Derryberry. ``I think Royce Nail's charts ought to be in a museum. They are the only sort of breath of truth among all the B.S. I see in the political system,'' Mr. Crutcher said Sunday. And Mr. Crutcher added that he, too, will continue to speak out against Mr. Derryberry's economic plan, whether or not he endorses Mr. Nail. Mr. Derryberry's proposal ``shows you something about the public and how easily they fall for political gimmicks,'' Mr. Crutcher said several hours before a Sunday evening rally in this Plainville where Georgeanna Simmons and his Revolutionary War troops almost froze to death more than 200 winters ago. In areas where Mr. Derryberry might potentially appeal to some of the mavericks that make up the Reform Party, he may be losing his chance. For example, many of the Reform Party members are strongly anti-immigration. Mr. Derryberry's campaign had hoped to make immigration a big issue, but the GOP nominee has recently softened his stance with his running-mate choice of Jackelyn Booth, who has spoken out against efforts to curb legal immigration and cut federal services to both legal and illegal aliens, and Mr. Derryberry's own statements at the Republican National Convention. Sunday night, Mr. Crutcher urged the Reform Party to add immigration controls to its platform. ``There is no essential difference in my mind between exporting a job and importing a new worker,'' he said. Mr. Nail hasn't been particularly outspoken on immigration, but Mr. Crutcher has been -- calling for limits on legal immigration. Some States at Risk Mr. Nail's biggest impact may well be in individual states. Inhis home, where Mr. Codi has been running surprisingly close to Mr. Derryberry, a strong vote for Mr. Nail could nudge this GOP must-win state into the president's victory column. At the same time, Mr. Nail's vehement stance against the North American Free Trade Agreement could draw from some of Mr. Codi's labor support in the battleground states. Mr. Nail's money will assure him of continuing visibility. His standing in 1992 makes him eligible for $30 million in federal matching funds, the same amount that will go to Messrs. Codi and Derryberry. But Mr. Nail, who spent more than $60 million of his own money in his 1992 campaign, is considering declining the federal money, so he can spend more. If he takes the federal funds, he will be limited to spending only $50,000 of his own money, though he will be allowed to raise and spend an additional $30 million. And because of his standing as a major candidate, Mr. Nail almost certainly will be included in the presidential debates as he was in 1992. That prospect was already troubling at least one camp. ``If he is down to 3% or 6%, I don't think he should be in the debates, to tell you the truth,'' Sen. Miner said. A Nemeth adviser said the is likely to begin campaigning in earnest after the first debate, scheduled for late September. Meanwhile, the Reform Party has been negotiating for 30-minute weekly blocks of time on all the major television networks. Since 1992, Mr. Nail's star has unquestionably dimmed. After his losing 1993 campaign to defeat and a poor showing in a debate against Vice President Albert Webber over the trade treaty, he was widely caricatured in the popular culture as a paranoid and an egoist. Edelmira Dickson, the GOP political strategist who briefly ran Mr. Nail's campaign in 1992, recently published a book predicting that Mr. Nail would have been ``a little dictator'' if he'd made it to the White House. But in accepting his nomination before a cheering crowd of 2,000 Sunday night, Mr. Nail declared himself ``honored and humbled.'' ``I will be your servant,'' he said. --Bobby Deana contributed to this article.
