The move will come after Jan. 1, when Jack Gargan takes over as party chairman. Russell Verney, who is close to Perot, has been party chairman since 1996.

Gargan and other Perot opponents say the headquarters move signifies Perot's loss of control.

"The head of the party is where the chair of the party is," Rick McCluhan, the Minnesota state party chairman, said Sunday. "The Dallas office has always been known as the headquarters. Now it will be known as the Florida office.

"What it really signifies, though, is the end of the staunch control that Ross Perot and Russ Verney have exerted over the party," McCluhan said.

But Verney, who works for one of Perot's businesses and chairs the party through the end of the year, downplayed the significance of the move. He said the party's headquarters actually resides in cyberspace, on the Reform Party Web site.

"It's just moving a post office box," he said Sunday. "There's no heavy lifting in this move."

Party members elected Gargan chairman earlier this year. He, McCluhan and others aligned with Ventura have scuffled with Perot's supporters over control of the party.

Chief among the disputes is who will get $12.6 million in federal matching funds as the Reform Party's presidential nominee. Perot's faction has been courting commentator Patrick Buchanan, while Ventura's side has wooed New York billionaire Donald Trump.

But the infighting has magnified even logistical disputes into fierce struggles for symbolic control.

The location of the Reform Party's August convention, for example, is an ongoing fight. Perot's supporters are pushing for Long Beach, Calif., while Ventura's folks insist on an unspecified site in Minnesota. A U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota is set to hear the matter on Tuesday, said McCluhan, who said he filed a lawsuit last week to stop Perot's supporters from forcing the convention to California.

He and others on Ventura's side also sees the headquarters move as an important symbolic victory.

Gargan said the party temporarily will operate from his house in Cedar Key, an island on Florida's Gulf Coast. He said he plans to move the office to Tampa to take advantage of better communication links.

The Reform Party has qualified for $12.6 million in federal campaign funds that its nominee could use in next year's presidential campaign.