Ross Perot: The Legacy of an Independent Candidate

Russ Verney and David M. Walker join Deconstructed’s host, T.J. O’Hara, to discuss the political legacy of H. Ross Perot.

Mr. Verney was a top advisor and spokesperson for Ross Perot’s 1992 presidential campaign in which Mr. Perot garnered 19% of the popular vote. Mr. Verney was also the first Chair of the Reform Party and Ross Perot’s campaign director during the latter’s 1996 presidential run.

David M. Walker is the former Comptroller General of the United States (under Presidents Clinton and Bush ’43) and CEO of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). He now serves as a Distinguished Professor at the United States Naval Academy. Mr. Walker was a personal friend of Ross Perot’s and the two worked together on Comeback America Initiative’s “$10 Million a Minute Tour” that tackled our nation’s enormous fiscal challenges.

The three discuss Ross Perot’s impact as an independent candidate, his character, and the fundamental positions in which he believed. They also discuss the current political environment and the struggle that independent candidates face today.

Russ Verney shares the background behind Ross Perot’s inclusion in the 1992 Presidential Debates. Perot enjoyed remarkable success in those debates. Unfortunately, his success led to the Democrat and Republic representatives, who control the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), to effectively ban independent and third party candidates from participating in the debates; an inequity that David Walker, IVN, and others are fighting to correct.