REFORM TO SET POLICIES AT STATE CONVENTION

Members of Minnesota's Reform Party will meet Saturday to vote on a
dramatic series of internal policy changes aimed partly at protecting
the party from a takeover by supporters of conservative presidential
candidate Pat Buchanan.

At the convention in Bloomington, party delegates will consider
setting new, tougher standards for who can be a delegate to the
national Reform Party's nominating convention next summer. Another
proposed rule change would give the state party's 20-member executive
committee authority to divorce the Minnesota party from the national
organization.

Other controversial issues facing delegates Saturday
include:

Endorsing the legalization of marijuana.

Changing the state party's name from the Reform Party of Minnesota to
the Independent Reform Party of Minnesota.

Stripping veteran state party activist Cedric Scofield of his
leadership positions because he voted for California, rather than
Minnesota, as the site for the national convention.

The convention, which will feature a keynote address by Gov. Jesse
Ventura at 9 a.m. and a straw poll on potential presidential nominees,
has been planned for months as a platform-setting exercise.

But the convention assumed new importance because of a split in the
national party last summer between people attracted to Ventura and
those loyal to Ross Perot, the Texas billionaire who was the party's
1992 and 1996 presidential candidate.