{news} GP RELEASE Greens: exclusive debates violate voters' right to informed choice

Thu Oct 12 15:58:04 EDT 2006

Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com> wrote:  From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org, media-states at lists.gp-us.org,
lavender-caucus at green.gpus.org
Subject: [media-states] GP RELEASE Greens: exclusive debates violate voters' right to informed choice
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:57:19 -0700 (PDT)

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, October 12, 2006

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

"Debate sponsors are using arbitrary judgements
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
, who has called for
open and inclusive televised debates in Tennessee
(petition at
).
"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 . 
"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 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
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:

ILLINOIS Green gubernatorial candidate Rich
Whitney , 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
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
.
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 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
).

MICHIGAN Douglas Campbell, two-time Green
candidate for governor
,
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
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 , Rachel
Treichler for Attorney General
, 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 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).

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green campaign listings, news, photos, and web
sites http://www.gp.org/2006elections
Database of 2006 Green candidates
http://www.greens.org/elections
Video clips of Green candidates
http://www.gp.org/2006elections/media.shtml
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

~ END ~

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com 
_______________________________________________
media-states mailing list
media-states at lists.gp-us.org
http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/media-states

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tim McKee cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282 Cliff Thornton for Governor- Campaign Manager-
    National Committee Member of the Green Party(Connecticut)

  Paid for by Thornton For Governor, Max Wentworth, Treasurer-   www.VoteThornton.com
  email: info at votethornton.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20061012/d0332bf6/attachment.html>