[0] LAMM, PEROT BID FOR BACKING : MAJOR PARTIES BLASTED AT REFORM CONVENTION.

Byline: Fred Bayles Associated Press 

Battling down to the smallest details, Ross Perot and long-shot challenger Richard Lamm vied for convention support Sunday from a Reform Party eager to crack the Republican and Democratic hold on the White House.

``I understand that if we fail to solve our problems, millions of people in our country will be devastated,'' Perot said in a speech cheered repeatedly by members of the party he founded.

In a blast at both major parties, he said the public must ``demand an end to negative politics, mean-spirited name calling, and demand that the candidates deal with the issues.''

Lamm, who preceded Perot to the podium, agreed with his rival on one fundamental point.

The two major parties are ``not part of the solution; they've become a very large part of the problem,'' said the former Democratic governor of Colorado, who sharply criticized President Clinton and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole in turn.

If elected, Lamm said, he would pursue a program of campaign and government reform, immigration reform and ``fiscal sanity,'' including a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and reform of automatic spending programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Lamm's 25-minute talk was delivered in a soft-spoken style, even when castigating the two major candidates.

Lamm said Clinton had ``blatantly put politics above the good of this country'' when he ``demonized'' a Republican proposal to reform Medicare last year.

As for Dole - on the verge of nomination by the GOP convention just down the California coast - Lamm said the former Kansas senator had embraced the idea of election-year tax cuts ``in order to prop up his sinking campaign.''

After declaring, ``I want to be your president,'' Perot gave a 59-minute lecture on economics, augmented by about a dozen charts and punctuated with Texas homilies and exhortations for voters to take control of their country.

``Think about it,'' he repeatedly said as he took on issues ranging from the budget deficit to foreign trade, lobbyists and politicians.

The Perot-Lamm duel, billed as an ``electronic convention,'' was part one of a two-act play hastily set up by Reform Party officials in July.

The Long Beach setting, picked to capitalize on the attention focused on this week's Republican National Convention 90 miles to the south in San Diego, kicks off a call-in primary vote over the next week.

The delegates in the hall greeted Perot more enthusiastically than Lamm, although nominating ballots will be cast by party members around the country able to vote by telephone, computer or mail. The winner will be announced next Sunday in Valley Forge, Pa.

Lamm acknowledged the long odds against his success in battling Perot but paid tribute to the Texan's reform efforts nonetheless. Perot founded the Reform Party and won 19 percent of the vote as the third man in the 1992 race for the White House.

Lamm said he has what it takes to ``move this party to the next level of restoring sanity to our political system.''

Perot began by congratulating his rival for an ``outstanding speech,'' but conducted the rest of his talk as if his candidacy was uncontested.

Despite the on-stage exchange of compliments, the gathering at the Long Beach Convention Center was marked by animosity between billionaire Perot and Lamm.

When Lamm supporters showed up with red and white ``Lamm for President'' placards, they were told the signs violated Reform Party rules and would not be allowed in the hall because they were 6 inches too long.

Supporters said they hadn't heard of any such rules until Sunday.

``We're not getting a fair shake out here,'' said Jill Henniger, an angry Lamm supporter from Santa Clara. ``Who is Ross Perot to think that he can make the rules?''

The wrangling outside the convention hall followed months of increasing tension between Perot and Lamm, whose candidacy was once welcomed by Perot. But the founder and benefactor of the Reform Party announced his own candidacy just 24 hours after Lamm got into the race July 9.

Since that time, Lamm, his supporters and other party members have become increasingly critical of Perot's hold on the party, including his control over party membership lists and balloting.

This weekend's convention relied more on television coverage than the delegate hoopla attending the Republican main show.

While Reform Party officials say they sent 1.1 million ballots to party members in all 50 states except Colorado or Pennsylvania, there were only a few thousand seats at the Long Beach Convention Center, a spare ballroom devoid of banners and sky boxes.

The meeting had a decidedly home-cooked flavor. People made their own T-shirts, decorated their own hats and brought their own pizza to a Saturday night kickoff party on the deck of the Queen Mary.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Ross Perot

Urges end to negative politics

(2) Richard Lamnn

Criticizes Clinton, Dole