He received 20% of the 352 votes cast, ahead of Bob Dole and Ross Perot. The party published a 172-page platform booklet, the longest of any party. Hagelin said that the party had been treated as a political curiosity in 1992, but had become a political force by 1995. The party was the subject of jokes on late-night TV shows, and its leaders admitted that some voters rejected the party because of the Maharishi's teachings. 1996–1998 In 1996, the NLP called itself the "fastest-growing grassroots party with 700 candidates on the ballot in 48 states". It ran 92 candidates for local, state, and federal offices in California alone. There were about 50 on the ballot in Ohio. By January 1996, the party had collected $400,000 in donations, while Hagelin's campaign had received about $300,000 plus $100,000 in matching funds. Hagelin threatened to sue the organizers of the National Issues Convention, a forum on social issues held in January 1996, if he was not allowed to participate along with the Republican and Democratic candidates. He continued to have trouble attracting attention from the media. At the Utah press conference announcing that the NLP had qualified for the ballot, only a single reporter attended. NLP candidates, including Hagelin, said they did not expect to win but were using the campaigns to spread their message. During the 1996 election, the party ran hundreds of candidates for seats in the United States House of Representatives, against both Democratic and Republican incumbents. The successful candidates were mostly in California, where many of them received about 3% of the vote, and Ohio, where some candidates received 4% or 5% of the vote. The candidate running against Democrat James Traficant, a conservative Democrat with no Republican opposition that year, received 9%. In South Carolina, the party received 10% of the vote against Republican Floyd Spence who had no other opposition. In California, psychiatrist Harold H. Bloomfield ran as candidate for governor in 1998. 2000 In 2000, Hagelin created an independent coalition between the Natural Law and the Reform Party, The coalition failed when Patrick Buchanan took control of the Reform Party. On March 31, 2000 the FEC certified primary season matching funds for John Hagelin, who was seeking the nomination of the Natural Law and Reform Parties. Hagelin was the second minor party presidential candidate to qualify; the first was Pat Buchanan. Ralph Nader eventually qualified as