ASHVILLE - An alliance of forces loyal to Ross Perot and Patrick J. Buchanan yesterday threw the Reform Party chairman, Jack Gargan, out of office at an meeting so chaotic and vituperative that police threatened repeatedly to halt it.
The vote, of 109 to 31, could be challenged in court. It marked the expulsion of a leader aligned with Governor Jesse Ventura of Minnesota. Ventura had been in a running battle with Perot and Buchanan allies for control of the party.
Ventura himself quit the party on Friday, saying he was leaving in disgust over the prospect that Buchanan would win the party's presidential nomination. But the vote to remove his hand-picked chairman, Gargan, was nearly certain, and the bid of Ventura's choice for the Reform Party's presidential nomination, the developer Donald Trump, had been fading for weeks.
The overwhelming vote against Gargan, and Ventura's decision to abandon the party, significantly improve Buchanan's chances of winning the party nomination, with the one potential hurdle being a late entry by Perot.
The national meeting degenerated into a shouting match that sometimes threatened to break out in violence. It took place as the party is positioned to wield significant influence over the 2000 election. The Reform Party nominee will get $12.6 million in federal money, and, if in five national polls the candidate gets 15 percent or more, the nominee will be allowed to participate in the general election debates.
One of the major beneficiaries of the actions here yesterday could be Arizona Senator John McCain, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, analysts said. McCain stresses many of the finance and other issues that have been staples for the Reform Party. McCain is seeking to appeal to independent voters who have supported Perot, and the emergence of Buchanan, along with the antics here, may prompt independents to vote for McCain in primaries that allow non-Republicans to participate.
After the vote to remove him was tabulated, Gargan told members: ''It's a shame. So many of you just came into the party. You don't even know me.... This is not the Reform Party I know, this is not the party of honesty and integrity.''
Two possible candidates to replace Gargan are Pat Choate, who ran for vice president on Perot's ticket in 1996 and who is now a national cochairman of the Buchanan campaign, and David Goldman, chairman of the Florida party.
Before the vote against Gargan was taken, the gathering of the 162-member national committee turned into a near riot as Gargan tried to run the event, only to face an insurgency from the floor of men and women yelling and chanting ''point of order,'' ''vote,'' ''call the roll.''
''We will call this meeting if it gets too rowdy,'' Lieutenant Glenn Yates of the Nashville police warned.
For at least half an hour, the meeting was mayhem. Gargan shouted from the podium that the session was illegal, while his opponents, led by the party vice chairman, Gerald Moan, demanded a vote on the motion to oust Gargan.
As Gargan spoke, the party secretary, Jim Mangia, another anti-Gargan figure, tried to wrest control of the microphone. When police and security officers sought to remove Mangia, he stood firm, telling them: ''I am the national secretary of this party. I have a right to be on this stage. I will not leave this stage. If you want to throw me off, that is your prerogative.''
''Hey, this is all going out on national TV, folks,'' Gargan said. ''Are we breaking down into mob rule again?''
Participants turned overwhelmingly against Gargan when Wendell Kinney of Maine spoke into a floor microphone in an authoritative voice that dominated the room: ''Mr. Gargan, if you do not call this meeting to order, I make a motion that the Sergeant of Arms remove you.'' The committee members cheered loudly.
At that point, Gargan ceded the lectern to Mangia. He spent the rest of the proceeding sitting or standing on the side, looking disconsolate as the proceedings moved through credentialing state delegations before getting to the vote to oust him.
