{news} Debates: Ken quoted in New York Times

[David Bedell]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/23/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/24ctweek.html

The Week in Connecticut
Published: September 23, 2006

Rell and DeStefano Differ Over Debate

The campaigns for Gov. M. Jodi Rell, a Republican, and John DeStefano Jr.,
her Democratic challenger, said on Monday that they were negotiating to hold
at least one debate in October. But they disagreed on whether third-party
candidates should participate.

Clifford W. Thornton Jr., the Green Party of Connecticut's candidate for
governor, and Joseph A. Zdonczyk, the candidate of the Concerned Citizens
Party of Connecticut, both qualified to be on the November ballot by getting
the required 7,500 signatures on petitions.

Derek Slapp, a spokesman for the DeStefano campaign, said that Mrs. Rell's
insistence on including the third-party candidates was a "smoke screen" to
avoid debating Mr. DeStefano one-on-one. He said the third-party candidates
should not participate because they had no chance to win the election.

"The voters want to see the two main candidates match up," Mr. Slapp said.
"They want a substantive discussion on policy, and that's difficult to do
with four people."

Ken Krayeske, the campaign director for Mr. Thornton, said it would be
unfair not to include the other candidates.

"The debates should reflect the ballots," he said. "If candidates are
excluded, voters cannot be educated on the policy platforms of people who
worked very hard to get on the ballots."

Rich Harris, a spokesman for the Rell campaign, denied that Mrs. Rell was
trying to avoid a one-to-one debate with Mr. DeStefano, who is the mayor of
New Haven.

"The governor firmly believes that if these people qualified for the ballot,
the public has the right to hear from them," he said. "We recently fixed
campaign finance reform expressly to make sure that third-party candidates
have an opportunity to participate in the process. Telling them they can't
be in a debate doesn't make sense."

JEFF HOLTZ