our years after he led his ''pitchfork brigade'' in a series of revolts in the Republican primaries, an insurrection that briefly shook the GOP establishment, Patrick J. Buchanan rode the tattered Reform Party into political purgatory last night.
According to reports from across the country, Buchanan was mired at no better than 1 percent of the national turnout, with no hope of making an impact in any state. That put him far short of the 5 percent threshold necessary to win post-election federal funds to keep the movement alive.
In fact, Buchanan had already effectively disowned the name of the party whose nomination he captured in August at a riotous convention in Long Beach, Calif. As he campaigned this fall, Buchanan said the Reform Party's image had been sullied by infighting, and he began referring to his following as a ''new party'' or a ''third party.''
Yet it was Ralph Nader, running as a Green Party candidate, who mobilized the biggest ''third party'' movement this year and appeared last night to be attracting three votes for every one given to Buchanan.
Still, Buchanan promised last night to remain in the party and continue to speak out on such issues as opposing abortion, restricting immigration and opposing free trade agreements.
''I am with these causes now and up until the time the Lord himself calls me home,'' Buchanan told a cheering crowd of about 100 people. ''This cause is not going to die. This cause is going to move forward.''
Representatives of the original Reform Party as well as partisans of the Green Party, the Natural Law Party and the Libertarians would gather after the election to consider a future course for alternative parties, said Russell Verney, a former party chairman.
''My fervent desire is for us to focus on 50 state parties as opposed to a national party, running candidates for school boards and state legislatures and not getting involved in a race for president,'' he said.
Buchanan was opposed by many members of a faction loyal to H. Ross Perot, a Texas businessman who ran a strong campaign for president as an independent in 1992 and later founded the Reform Party.
Perot himself added another cut to Buchanan's wounds last week by endorsing Governor George W. Bush of Texas.
In the end, Buchanan was left to campaign for conservative votes in states where Bush seemed to be hopelessly behind. Using an argument that a vote for Bush was a lost cause, Buchanan appealed for support on the grounds that it would help him meet the 5 percent requirement for federal
Buchanan was once a wunderkind in Republican circles, a youthful speechwriter for President Nixon who helped craft some of the strong language used by Nixon and his vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, during their law-and-order campaigns against Democrats. He later served as a White House adviser to President Reagan and became well-known as a combative conservative commentator before making his first bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1992.
His attacks on trade and tax policies that year troubled a sitting Republican president, George Bush, but the full potential of Buchanan's movement was realized in 1996 when he won the New Hampshire primary and threatened to derail Bob Dole's drive to the nomination.
Claiming that the Republican Party had deserted him and his principles, Buchanan left his philosophical home last year to pursue the Reform Party nomination and the $12.6 million in federal funds due to the old Perot operation.
Buchanan won the Federal Election Commission certification as the Reform Party candidate and spent the money on a quixotic media campaign and lonely autumn tour, but by that time he had been abandoned by most of his old constituency and no longer drew the attention of political journalists.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
