Three dissident members of Ross Perot’s United We Stand/Maine have been kicked out of the national group.

Lloyd Wells of Falmouth, Tim Beal of Lewiston, and Joe Harrington of Freeport, all of whom worked on Perot’s candidacy in Maine, have received letters within the past few days notifying them that their applications were rejected.

The three have been increasingly vocal about what they say is UWS/Maine’s top-down management style, and none have been shy about expressing their concerns to the media.

Wells received a letter Monday from Steve Bost, the Maine chapter’s executive director, returning his $15 membership and $100 donation. Beal, who headed Perot’s effort for Androscoggin County last year, met a similar fate Tuesday, and Harrington was ousted on Wednesday.

The schism between the faction and the official organization has been widening since just after the election when the three complained that Bost was running United We Stand/Maine with an authoritarian hand. Bost, who is based in Bangor, has said the troika is simply out for attention.

“Clearly the objective has been to gain as much media attention to their cause as possible,” Bost said. “And they’ve succeeded.”

Wells has said in the past that one of his primary objectives has been to gain the attention of Perot, but Bost suggested that has backfired.

Meanwhile, Wells said he has been flooded with calls from the national media and threatened to form his own national group to oppose Perot if the Texas tycoon doesn’t change the way the organization is run.

On May 6, about a week before being officially booted from the organization, Wells wrote to Perot expressing concern ” … that you are personally committed to an authoritarian style of organization. …

“Unless you terminate this legalistic mockery and give adequate and appropriate evidence to the American public that you personally reject authoritarian and dictatorial tactics I will, with great regret, be compelled to resist all future UWSA proceedings as comprising a serious and current threat to the personal freedom of every American citizen and, by extension, human freedom world-wide,” Wells wrote.

May 6 also was the day Wells appeared before the state’s UWS leaders to answer complaints about his activity, a meeting he characterized as a “kangaroo court.” During a vote of the 14 or so members, UWS/Maine agreed to express their concerns to the Dallas headquarters but allow Wells to remain a member, he said.

Wells also said he planned to continue his capacity as a subcommittee chairman for Cumberland County.

“Until Mr. Perot himself tells me I am out, I don’t believe it,” Wells said.

Although there has been increasing internal criticism of United We Stand’s management style in a number of states, Bost said it’s rare for dissenting members to receive the boot.

“There’s definitely precedent for this,” he said. “It’s always held as a last resort.”

Wells’ relationship with Bost reached a low earlier this year when he registered the United We Stand/Maine name at the Secretary of State’s office, an action that drew a threat of legal action from Perot’s attorney.

The recent escalation in the internal conflict has led at least one other member to quit the Maine chapter.

“If you were really interested in establishing a grass roots organization you would have allowed the members of United We Stand to organize, through our own bylaws committee, a strong bottom-up structure which could deal effectively and democratically with internal issues,” Steven Byrnes of Cumberland wrote in a May 12 letter to Perot.

For Harrington, the ouster reflects yet another change in his position. In January, he wrote to Bost apologizing for his participation and appeared to show a split with Beal and Wells.

“I did not share Lloyd’s anxiety about how Ross would organize UWS,” he wrote then.