LBANY, N.Y. - The New York wing of the Reform Party turned its back on Patrick J. Buchanan yesterday, giving its presidential ballot line to his rival for the party's hearts and minds, John Hagelin, and voting to sever ties with the national group.
Shortly after handing Hagelin their presidential ballot line for November, the leaders of New York's Independence Party voted overwhelmingly to disaffiliate from the national Reform Party.
''It sends the right message,'' said Jeff Graham, the state party's US Senate candidate, after the disaffiliation vote. ''We should be on record as being against what Buchanan stands for.''
The lone opponent to disaffiliation at the Independence Party's state convention complained that his fellow state party leaders had broken a ''moral contract'' with New York voters who had joined the party.
''It's not what the voters who signed on with the party bargained for,'' said Thomas Loughlin, a Buchanan supporter from Utica. He said the move would cause the Independence Party to ''lose clout'' on the national scene.
In backing Hagelin, the Independence Party leaders also rejected an effort by Ralph Nader to secure the ballot line. Nader is on the state's November ballot as the candidate of the Green Party.
Buchanan is also on the New York ballot, having circulated petitions to qualify an independent Buchanan-Reform line.
Nader's effort to win the Independence Party line in New York, crumbled after his camp refused to back Graham's Senate candidacy. Graham is facing Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Representative Rick Lazio, among others, in the Senate race.
While Hagelin has managed to get on the ballot in a dozen states as the Reform Party candidate, Buchanan has locked up the majority of such state lines and has been awarded more than $12 million in federal funds for his campaign by the Federal Election Commission. The FEC rejected a plea by Hagelin to obtain those funds.
Hagelin scored points with leaders of the Independence Party, meeting this weekend in Albany, simply by showing up at the state convention on Saturday. He stayed around for yesterday's voting. Nader and Buchanan had sent representatives.
Nonetheless, Nader had his supporters.
''He has not only talked the talk, he has walked the walk,'' said Philip Goldstein, who told the convention that Hagelin was ''a little too much of a snake oil salesman.''
In the end, only the names of Nader and Hagelin were put into nomination at the state party's convention. Hagelin topped Nader by a better than 10-to-1 ratio in the weighted voting.
''We cannot wait to begin campaigning on behalf of the Independence Party,'' Hagelin told the convention after his victory.
