Top Perot Aides Move to Quell Talk of Internal Strife : Discord: They concede some friction. California team moves to defuse complaints from Los Angeles volunteers.

By EDWIN CHEN and JACK CHEEVERS

July 15, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

DALLAS — Top aides to Ross Perot moved Tuesday to quell talk of serious strife within his national campaign staff, but they conceded that there have been disagreements over “strategy and tactics.”

And, in California, the state organization moved to defuse complaints that Los Angeles County volunteers were being left out of the decision-making process. State Perot chairman Bob Hayden promised to push for the county to get its own representative on Perot’s state campaign committee, which sets policy and disburses funds.

The Texas billionaire’s undeclared independent presidential campaign has been buffeted in recent days by slippage in opinion polls, the dismissal of his only advertising firm and Perot’s remarks before an NAACP convention that offended many blacks.

But Tom Luce, Perot’s longtime associate and now his campaign manager, discounted the controversies--as did other high-level aides. “In every campaign, there are disagreements from time to time about strategy and tactics,” Luce said. “And there have been disagreements in this campaign from time to time.”

Another senior adviser, campaign co-chairman Edward J. Rollins, was asked about reports of turmoil during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show. Rollins, who had hired the ad firm ousted earlier this week, conceded that there has been “a bit of dissension” among the top tier of Perot advisers.

“We have to argue with him (Perot) for each item we’re going to spend--justifiably,” Rollins said, acknowledging that he feels “some frustration.”

But Perot “didn’t get to where he was by turning over the reins,” he added.

Luce and Rollins denied that co-chairman Hamilton Jordan would leave the campaign. Jordan reportedly has been telling friends that he may leave because Perot does not take his advice.

“Hamilton Jordan has assured me he does not intend to leave the campaign,” Luce said. Jordan could not be reached for comment.

Luce conceded, however, that there has been some dissension among staffers and that Perot has sometimes overruled Jordan and Rollins.

Rollins, who managed Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection, said that although Jordan feels frustrated, “He’s certainly not intending, at least to the best of my knowledge, to leave the campaign.”

Another senior adviser, James Squires, said there have been some disagreements over the timing of certain events--apparently a reference to Rollins’ desire to quickly launch a television advertising campaign.

Those plans now have been shelved, at least temporarily, by the departure of San Francisco ad executive Hal Riney, who produced the “Morning in America” ads for Reagan’s 1984 campaign.

Perot reportedly disliked some of Riney’s work--and high fees--and terminated the relationship.

Squires said Perot intends, soon after the Democratic Party convention, to begin talking about issues in specific terms, which he has largely avoided to date.

“You’re going to hear, see issues--there’s not going to be anything else but issues,” Squires said, declining to elaborate.

He said Perot, who writes his own speeches, has no plans to hire “handlers” or speech writers to bolster his campaign.

If Perot did so, he said, he would become vulnerable to charges that “the system got to Perot.”

The California dispute revolved around leaders of Perot’s Los Angeles County organization, who had complained to reporters that they did not have a voice on Perot’s 13-member state executive committee.

Hayden spent two hours on the phone Tuesday with Mike Norris, one of the county’s three Perot co-directors, to try to resolve the dispute.

Norris said in an interview last week that because county leaders had no seat on the state committee they had no direct contact with Perot’s Dallas headquarters, leading to miscues and confusion.

He said that two local Perot offices, in East and South-Central Los Angeles, had been set up and funded directly from Dallas and that he and other county leaders had been left “out of the loop.”

Hayden said he promised Norris that he would push for the county to have its own committee seat, saying, “I thought their concerns were valid.” Nearly one-fourth of all registered voters in the state reside in Southern California.

Hayden’s assurance came a day after Perot’s Southern California vice chairman, Bill Myers, faxed an angry memo to local Perot leaders throughout Southern California, urging volunteer workers to “denounce internal disrupters” and suggesting that those who expose internal problems to the press are Republican or Democratic Party infiltrators.

“I call upon every volunteer true to the cause of saving our country to staunchly resist the efforts of muckrakers, complainers, opportunists and self-important agitators,” the memo said. “Either you are with us in our fight to elect Ross Perot, or you are against us and must leave.”

In an interview Monday, Myers, who represents all of Southern California on the executive committee, denied that Los Angeles County had been left out of statewide decision-making and suggested that Norris and other local leaders were “looking for a position on the Executive Committee to say they are even more important than they are now.”

Norris said Tuesday that Myers apparently felt “personally assailed” because it was his job to represent Los Angeles County on the state committee. Norris said he did not take Myers’ fax personally and went public only because he thought the state’s most populous county was being short-changed.

Meanwhile, it was announced Tuesday that Perot would speak Friday at a rally in St. Paul, Minn., marking the submission of signature petitions to qualify him for that state’s November ballot. He is scheduled to make a similar appearance Saturday in Williamsburg, Va.

Perot has now been certified for the ballot in 24 states.

Chen reported from Dallas and Cheevers from Los Angeles.