Perot Seeking To Sow Seeds For Third Party

Speaking from a church pulpit at Yale University Friday, Ross Perot called on students to enliven his slumping presidential campaign and in the long term, to replace the nation’s two-party system.

“This is our country. It is in your hands. We can make it anything you want it to be, but the thing you can’t be is cynical, disillusioned or turned off,” Perot told about 700 students at Battell Chapel. “You have to have that same spirit the pioneers had.”

Perot’s concentration on the youth vote in a series of campaign stops this month marks an evolution of campaign strategy, his advisers acknowledged.

Realizing that his chances of winning the presidency are becoming more and more remote, Perot is seeking to sow the seeds of future support for a viable third party, said press secretary Sharon Holman.

“That’s one of the goals. If we get 25 percent of the vote, in the year 2000, we’re entitled to full funding,” Holman said. “His appeal is geared toward the next generation.”

National polls show support for the Reform Party ticket languishing in the single digits.

Perot’s speech at Yale and a rally at Purdue University in Indiana on Thursday were his first on the campaign trail after a long absence.