LEGAL POT, HEALTH CARE FOR ALL ON REFORM PLATFORM

Broadening the Minnesota Reform Party's usual emphasis on fiscal
responsibility and limited government, a proposed overhaul of its
platform calls for legalized marijuana, universal health care and
local control of education.

The proposed platform will be considered by the party's state
convention Nov. 13 in Bloomington, where Gov. Jesse Ventura will be
the keynote speaker. "We'll see how the convention responds," state
party chairman Rick McCluhan said Tuesday. "Some of the planks will be
a slam dunk. Some will spur more contentious debate."

Especially if supporters of new Reform Party member and presidential
hopeful Patrick Buchanan show up to contest new planks in support of
mass transit, a national identification system, health care for all
and legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana.

"The Buchanan delegates will be shaking their heads, saying, 'What
kind of party are we getting into?' " McCluhan said.

Even McCluhan, in his first year as state party chairman, said he
wasn't so sure about the marijuana plank. "I might support
decriminalization," he said.

Under Minnesota Reform Party rules, the party's endorsed candidates
must pledge support of at least half of all platform planks, which
must be adopted by at least a 60 percent vote of the convention.
Candidates also are required to back three-quarters of so-called
"cornerstone planks," those approved by three-quarters of the
delegates. Current and proposed

The current state Reform platform, adopted in June 1998, contains just
30 planks that fit easily on two sides of a sheet of paper. Many deal
with reforming government and political campaigns and erasing the
national debt.

The proposed platform, drafted by a committee headed by former Reform
secretary of state candidate Alan Shilepsky, has four pages and 79
planks. McCluhan, however, said he hopes the convention pares it down
considerably. Shilepsky said his panel might make some "minor
modifications" before the convention.

Some key elements of the current platform are retained in the draft,
including the party's support of labor unions and a "social safety
net," plus its neutrality on abortion. And the draft still calls for
campaign reforms, a balanced federal budget and limits on government
spending.

Some of the proposed planks reflect Ventura's support of a simpler
property-tax system, mass transit, term limits and a unicameral
Legislature, as well as his opposition to public financing of sports
facilities and his questioning of drug laws.

Other planks seem to call for big-government solutions such as
providing health care for all Minnesotans and instituting "a national
employment and welfare eligibility verification system to stop the
trade in false IDs." There's also a plank opposing "excessive media
consolidation in the TV, radio, cable, publishing and movie
industries." McCluhan described that plank as "a little socialistic"
and said he probably wouldn't support it.

But there are also hints of the party's libertarian streak in
proposals to hold parents responsible for their children's behavior in
school and cut state and federal mandates on K-12 education.