{news} Avon Post on Burbank's exclusion

[David Bedell]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20145846
10/01/2008
Minor party candidates still fighting to be included in 5th-District debate

By: Brian Woodman Jr. and Marc Levy , Journal Register News Service

A new look at Canton resident Harold Burbank, a Green Party candidate for
U.S. representative in the 5th District, has changed nothing, League of
Women Voters officials said Monday.

As of press time, they determined he was still not eligible to participate
in an Oct. 11 debate slated to be held at Central Connecticut State
University in New Britain. The university, however, said it still can't host
the event without the involvement of Burbank and independent candidate
Thomas Winn.

The candidates approved by the league are Chris Murphy, the Democratic
incumbent, and Republican challenger David Cappiello, of the state's 24th
District.

League officials exchanged e-mails Saturday and Sunday and held a conference
call over the impasse, but nothing changed over the weekend, said Jara
Burnett, president of the state league. Changing criteria to ease the way
for less competitive candidates never came up.

If that's the case, that means the university, as a government entity,
legally cannot host the event, said Mark McLaughlin, associate vice
president of university marketing and communications. The university has
been hosting such events for several years, but this issue hadn't come up.

There have been no talks about hosting the event without the league, and the
university doesn't even officially know from the league the event is off,
McLaughlin said.

The league's New Britain chapter co-president, Helen Z. Pearl, said there
was to be a league meeting Wednesday (after the Post went to Press) to
discuss whether an alternative site can be found for the university's Torp
Theater, which holds about 300 people.

"We don't have another venue," she said.

Until then, even the candidates were waiting for news. "We're playing by
their rules, [but] it's important for David and Chris to have a dialogue -
several dialogues," said Adam Bauer, of the Cappiello campaign. Murphy's
campaign didn't have a comment Monday but previously said it would like to
see all four candidates participate.

There are four other debates scheduled, the closest of which will be Oct. 22
in Meriden.

In addition to filing a Federal Communications Commission complaint against
the league, the host for three of five scheduled debates, Burbank said he is
considering suing.

League criteria include whether candidates have a formal campaign with
headquarters and other features, published position papers, broad voter
support and significant campaign contributions. The directors questioned the
candidates' funding levels and whether they demonstrated enough voter
outreach, and Burbank did not submit sufficient documentation regarding
issues relevant to the district, directors said.

Last week, Jara Burnett, president of the New Britain League, said any
congressional district debate, although organized by local chapters, was
bound by the criteria of the state organization regarding the qualification
of candidates to participate. She said the board made a discretionary
decision regarding qualification based on criteria that included ballot
access, a formal campaign with headquarters and other features, published
position papers, broad voter support and significant campaign contributions.

'I feel that they did not fulfill our criteria," she said last week. "This
decision was not taken lightly. It was based on materials the candidates
provided."

She said the league's qualifying process is intended to underscore the
difference between candidates running the most viable campaign for the
purpose of a meaningful debate. She said that while the process was skewed
toward the candidates from the major parties, the organization does provide
an online voter guide with information on all the candidates.

"All state Green Party candidates for U.S. House were excluded from League
debates this week for specious reasons including not raising enough campaign
funds, not doing voter outreach and not writing enough position papers,
which is simply unconstitutional bias," said Burbank in a prepared
statement. "The League of Women Voters knows that it provides about the best
U.S. House race debate venues in the state, and receives federal grant money
into its non-profit education fund to help fund debates. They expect
National Public Radio, cable television media and other media regulated by
the FCC to cover their debates which now amount to political advertisement
contributions to Democrat and Republican campaigns only. The U.S.
Constitution First Amendment, severely eroded as it is under President Bush,
will not permit such grossly unequal political speech access to the public
airwaves."

Winn, who has never run for elected office, said he would like to hold an
alternative debate in which questions that are the same or similar to those
posed at the debate will be discussed - preferably with Burbank.

Winn criticized Cappiello and Murphy for participating in the league's event
without officially requesting that he and Burbank participate. Burbank
publicly stated Murphy should decline participating in other events held by
the league until all four candidates are allowed to participate.

"They should ask that there be all or none," he said late last week. "'If
all ideas are not being evenly represented, we shouldn't have them,' they
should be saying. I'm so angry right now."