Reform Party Chief Choate Resigns

WASHINGTON — Reform Party Chairman Pat Choate resigned Friday and turned control over to his vice chairman, citing a family illness.

Gerald Moan of Tucson will head the party until a new chairman is selected at its summer convention in Long Beach, Choate said.

Choate, the 1996 Reform Party vice presidential nominee, said in a telephone interview with Associated Press that the party is united after months of wrangling, thus his departure will not be unsettling. Former Republican presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan, recruited to the party by Choate, is the leading contender for the third-party nomination.

Choate announced his resignation in a letter to the party’s executive council. The letter noted “an illness in our family that requires the immediate attention of my wife and me.” He said in an interview the illness was a private matter.