THE PEROT BACKLASH

By JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM

Ross Perot has been breaking promises at such a rate that his Reform Party allies are starting to desert him. First one broken: that he'd name a running mate "in just a few days" after his nomination. Perot has been rejected by House members ranging from Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, a liberal, to Linda Smith of Washington State, a conservative. He plans to concentrate on the 65 members of Congress retiring this year.

Even rank-and-file Reformers are snubbing Perot. Some think his decision to accept nearly $30 million in taxpayers' money is a raid on the very Treasury he complains is already empty. Others worry that he is attracting types like left-fringe politico Lenora Fulani. Officials of New York's Independence Party are threatening to drop Perot from their ticket because of what they see as massive irregularities in the nomination process. Nearly a third of their 38,000 members didn't receive ballots as promised, while nonmembers got ballots simply by phoning Reform headquarters and asking for them.

Followers of the defeated Richard Lamm are trying to determine whether the nomination was rigged. Among their questions: How could only 6% of the 68,183 telephoned votes have been counted as authentic? And why didn't the former Colorado Governor or his daughter receive ballots until Perot interceded? Perot aides say Lamm didn't get a ballot because his handwriting on a petition was illegible. They assert the balloting was honest and overseen by an independent auditor. Lamm doesn't accuse Perot of stealing the nomination. Still, he isn't inclined to endorse Perot: "Should he be the second Paul Revere? I say, Right on! But when it comes to [endorsing him for] President of the United States, I sort of back away."

--By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum/Washington