ONG BEACH, Calif. - In a fractious opening act, the Reform Party began its convention week yesterday with a closed-door quarrel that led to charges of fraud, a walkout by officials loyal to party founder Ross Perot, and assertions of victory by the campaign of Patrick J. Buchanan.
While competing forces shoved and bellowed at one another in a hotel mezzanine outside a guarded ballroom, Buchanan's sympathizers won a showdown ruling inside at a meeting of the party's national committee. Afterward, the candidate's sister and campaign manager, Bay Buchanan, said of the effort to deny him the nomination: ''It's over now.''
But even as Buchanan's supporters appeared to grab control of the Reform Party apparatus, dozens from the 160-member national committee stormed from the meeting. Shouting that they had been cheated by a ''lawless'' procedure, the group gathered in a rump session at a hotel down the street to claim that they still represented the party.
Donna Donovan, who described herself as ''press secretary in exile'' of the Reform Party founded by Perot during his presidential campaign in 1992, said their next moves were not yet clear. But she was withering with her criticism of the Buchanan backers. She said Gerry Moan, interim chairman of the party and considered a Buchanan ally, had ''lost his mind'' by throwing yesterday's meeting into the hands of Buchanan supporters.
''This is chaos,'' said Russell Verney, a former national chairman of the party and leader of the anti-Buchanan bloc, after being blocked from attending the meeting where Buchanan's allies took over the party. Verney charged that Buchanan had stuffed the room with ineligible voters.
Verney's remarks to reporters and old Perot backers barred from the ballroom were met with shouts of ''Shut up, Verney!'' and ''Go home!'' from Buchanan supporters milling in the mezzanine.
As the confrontation intensified, several uniformed Long Beach police officers arrived to maintain order.
Micki Summerhays of Oregon, one of 10 members of the party's executive committee, described the turmoil behind the closed doors. She said Moan disregarded a parliamentarian rule and allowed dozens of Buchanan delegates, whose credentials were under dispute, to be seated. The decision enabled Buchanan's forces to outnumber veterans of the Reform Party who object to his candidacy.
Although Perot is not expected to attend the convention and has taken no public role in the struggle, the fight against Buchanan has been led by Perot's political associates. In a prelude to this week's event, the pro-Perot executive committee voted a few days ago to disqualify Buchanan as a Reform Party candidate.
As the meeting convened inside the ballroom, Jim Mangia, the party's national secretary, rallied several members of the executive committee for an impromptu press conference. Raising his arm in a mock Nazi salute, he charged the Buchanan campaign with ''overstepping bounds, seizing the power of the national committee, and submitting false lists of delegates.
''We're concerned that Pat Buchanan will steal our party and $12.6 million in matching funds,'' Mangia said.
Bob Roth, press secretary for John Hagelin, Buchanan's rival for the nomination, described the scene as ''crazy'' as the political party veered toward anarchy. ''Moan thinks he's in charge, and Mangia thinks he's in charge.''
Although Buchanan seemed assured of winning the party's presidential nomination when the national convention formally begins tomorrow, his opposition vowed to go to court to prevent him from obtaining the $12.6 million due to the Reform Party from the Federal Election Commission.
Bay Buchanan said her brother had worked legally within the system to win a majority of the delegates at the convention.
She said the disruptions were being caused by people ''who would rather destroy the party than to have a Buchanan candidacy.''
