Perot Begins TV Campaign With Infomercial On Sunday

Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot will begin his television campaign Sunday with the first of two infomercials to be aired on ABC one of his favorite ways of campaigning.

Perot’s office announced Wednesday that his campaign had bought two 30-minute blocks of time with the network. The first will air Sunday at 7 p.m. and the second will be shown Sept. 5 after “Nightline.”

The subjects of the shows will be announced later, said spokeswoman Sharon Holman. She said the cost of the ads was not being released.

“Truthfully, I don’t know if that is something I’d put out, because we’re still negotiating,” she said.

Perot’s campaign had been trying to arrange for at least 10 to 15 half-hour blocks of time on the four major networks, Clayton Mulford, general counsel, had said earlier.

Thirty-minute ads were a favorite of Perot’s when he ran for president in 1992 as an independent and garnered 19 percent of the vote. During that election, in addition to the half-hour programs, Perot bought more than $10 million worth of network time to air a series of 60-second ads.

Also on Wednesday, the Federal Election Commission made public a financial report filed by the Perot Reform Committee.

The filing showed Perot spent almost $2 million on Reform Party business the month before he received its nomination.

Perot, who reported putting $6.3 million into the effort from March through July, has agreed to limit his personal spending on the fall campaign to $50,000 in exchange for $29.1 million in taxpayer funds.

The deal is part of the public financing system that will also pay for the campaigns of President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole.