Exclusive Debates Violate Voters' Rights to Make Informed Choices

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org 
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@greens.org 

Greens protest arbitrary and antidemocratic rules used to limit candidates' debates to Democratic and Republican candidates

• Exclusion of other parties' candidates is violation of voters' right to make informed choices, say Greens

• Short reports of Greens responding to debate exclusion in various states

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Greens across the U.S. protested aggressive efforts by Democratic and Republican politicians and their supporters to block Greens and other third party and independent candidates from participating in this year's candidates debates.

"Voters have a right to know about all the candidates who'll be on the ballot," said said Howie Hawkins, New York Green candidate for U.S. Senate <http://www.hawkinsforsenate.org>, who has 21% support among independents in an October 10 Zogby poll but has so far been excluded from the two scheduled debates between Democratic incumbent Hillary Clinton and Republican John Spencer. "Voters have a right to make an informed choice about which candidate supports their interests and ideals. Debates should include all candidates who have qualified for the ballot. Anything less amounts to censorship and rigged elections."

Green Party leaders criticized debate sponsors for using biased criteria to limit debates to candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties, and noted that the IRS requires that 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) forum sponsors "provide an equal opportunity to political candidates seeking the same office" <http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154712,00.html>.

"Debate sponsors are using arbitrary judgments based on opinion poll percentages and campaign treasuries to decide which candidates voters get to see and hear at the debates," said Chris Lugo, Tennessee Green candidate for the U.S. Senate <http://www.chris4senate.com>, who has called for open and inclusive televised debates in Tennessee (petition at <http://www.petitiononline.com/2006gptn/petition.html>). "Opinion polls and the prejudices of debate sponsors are more and more determining who gets elected."

"Opinion polls often limit respondents' answers to a choice of Democrat or Republican. When opinion polls become more important than the ballot box, democracy is in trouble," added Laura Wells, California Green candidate for State Controller <http://www.laurawells.org>. "Ironically, Greens now represent majority public opinion on issues like the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, while many of the debates are limited to 'stay the course' warhawks from the Democratic and Republican parties."

Reports from Green campaigns across the U.S.:

CALIFORNIA Green gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo <http://www.votecamejo.com> called California's only televised debate (October 7) an "insult" to voters and part of a plan by Democrats and Republicans to limit the choices Californians have at the polls, and cited a nonpartisan opinion poll showing that as many as 63% of likely voters with an opinion favor his inclusion.

CONNECTICUT On Monday, October 9, Green gubernatorial candidate Cliff Thornton <http://www.votethornton.com> and dozens of his supporters protested outside the Garde Theatre in New London after The Day (Connecticut) excluded him from a statewide televised debate. Pictures and a report of the protest: <http://www.votethornton.com/blog/>

ILLINOIS Green gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney <http://www.whitneyforgov.org>, polling as high as 7.8%, was excluded from an October 2 debate hosted by Illinois Radio Network in Decatur. Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has backed out of other scheduled debates in Marion and Chicago because Whitney was invited or was about to be invited, and made it clear he would have backed out of the Decatur debate had Whitney been invited.

IOWA After Green candidate Wendy Barth <http://www.votewendy.org> was barred from a series of gubernatorial candidates' debates, the Iowa Green Party announced that it will provide real-time responses to the debate questions through the campaign website <http://www.votewendy.org/debate/live_debate.html>. Iowa Greens protested the debate sponsors' (several Iowa TV stations and newspapers) arbitrary and high threshold of 15% support in opinion polls for inclusion in the debates.

MASSACHUSETTS After Green gubernatorial candidate Grace Ross <http://www.graceandwendy.org> was barred from the first televised debate this past spring that was sponsored by The Boston Globe, WBUR, New England Cable News, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Mass Inc., Ms. Ross and Massachusetts Greens launched a series of protests that embarrassed the sponsors and ensured Green inclusion in most subsequent debates and community forums. Ms. Ross's performance in a series of televised gubernatorial debates has been widely praised ("Debate rich on issues," by Eileen McNamara, The Boston Globe, October 1 <http://www.boston.com/news/...). 

MICHIGAN Douglas Campbell, two-time Green candidate for governor <VoteCampbell2006 Press Releases (PDF)>, was turned away on Monday, October 2 by Michigan Public Broadcasting station WKAR-TV as he tried to participate in a televised debate which had been promoted for its 'open format'. Campbell sharply criticized the station's use of "contrived, vague and inapplicable benchmarks" to exclude himself and other parties' candidates whom the state Bureau of Elections had qualified for the November 7 ballot. In the U.S. Senate race, Green candidate David Sole <http://www.stopthewarslate.org> filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission over his exclusion from a debate scheduled for October 18 at the Detroit Economic Club. Mr. Sole noted that the Club, sponsored by corporate money, was violating its nonprofit status by limiting the debate to the two corporate party candidates.

NEW YORK Green candidates Malachy McCourt for Governor <http://votemalachymccourt.org>, Rachel Treichler for Attorney General <http://www.voterachel.org>, and Howie Hawkins for U.S. Senate have been excluded from the debates organized by the League of Women Voters and NY1 TV news station. Debate criteria included polls that barred third-party candidates and fundraising thresholds that excluded Green Party candidates, who do not accept corporate contributions. Ms. Treichler has organized an alternative debate open to all of the ballot-qualified Attorney General candidates.

WISCONSIN Supporters of the Rae Vogeler for U.S. Senate campaign <http://www.voterae.org> flooded the offices of Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) with emails and phone calls protesting her exclusion from WPT's 'Special Joint Appearance of U.S. Senate Candidates' on its October 6 'Here and Now' program, which only featured Sen. Herb Kohl (D) and Robert Lorge (R).

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