{news} Fairfield County Weekly on Duffee's exclusion

[David Bedell]

http://www.fairfieldweekly.com/article.cfm?aid=9953

Injustice League?
The state League of Women Voters isn't inviting any third party candidates
to its congressional debates. Some branches, including Norwalk's, are upset.

Thursday, October 09, 2008
By Chandra Niles Folsom

The controversy over the Connecticut League of Women Voters' decision to bar
every third party candidate from its congressional debates has caused the
Norwalk chapter to cancel its forum for the Fourth District seat.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Chris Shays is being challenged by Democrat Jim
Himes. Libertarian Michael Anthony Carrano and Green Party candidate Richard
Duffee (who ran for Shays' seat in 2006) are also running but they didn't
get invites to the LWV debate planned for Norwalk or the one still scheduled
for Wilton.

This was not okay with Diane Lauricella, president of the Norwalk chapter,
one of 32 LWV branches across the state. Late last week, she called a
meeting among group members in an attempt to rectify the issue but, as of
now, it seems they may be in a league of their own.

"On a local level, the Norwalk chapter has historically allowed third party
candidates in mayoral debates," says Lauricella. "We have a track record of
being open and are disappointed that our state League does not allow the
criteria to meet the bar."

Connecticut LWV Vice President Pat Donovan, who did not return phone calls
from the Weekly, sent a letter to several third party candidates that
stated: "Using criteria reaffirmed by the League of Women Voters in April of
2007, and re-affirmed in April 2008, the committee made a determination that
your candidacy does not meet all of our criteria. Therefore, unfortunately,
we must deny your eligibility to participate in League-sponsored debates
during the 2008 election season."

Criteria mentioned by Donovan included documentation of campaign positions,
amount of funds and success in voter outreach. League officials at the state
level say that all third party candidates running for Congress this year
failed to meet these standards.

The League is sponsoring debates in the three of Connecticut's five
congressional districts where competitive races are occurring, and all will
be between only the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Duffee voiced outrage at what he views as the state League's lack of
democratic spirit.

"They have denied eligibility and stonewalled us, they won't state their
standards publicly and they won't state their appeals procedures either,"
says Duffee. "I've raised over $9,000 and yet they won't let me in."

In 2006, the League allowed Libertarian candidate Phil Maymin (who later
became a regular columnist for the Weekly) to debate when he had raised only
$8,000.

"But beside that, nowhere has the League published the level of funding they
consider a threshold to legitimacy," says Duffee. "And in terms of position
papers, I have 23 positions and Himes has only 16."

Duffee blames the LWV at the state level for the debacle. He thanks the
Norwalk chapter for its efforts to work out a reasonable solution.

"As for outreach, I was told that the League wanted to see lawn signs or
bumper stickers around the district," says Duffee. "As an environmental
party that refuses corporate funding, these are hardly things we can be
enthusiastic about."

In 2006, Shays won 106,510 votes compared to 99,450 for Democrat Diane
Farrell, Westport's former first selectwoman. Maymin received 3,058 votes,
and Duffee, whose supporters saw his potential to draw votes from Farrell in
a close race, threw his support behind her.

Statewide, there are 2,151 Green Party members and 1,147 Libertarians,
according to the Secretary of State's office.

"I had wanted to find out about the process to screen candidates and am
still waiting to find out about the appeals process," says Lauricella. "I
did research and reviewed Duffee's criteria and spoke with members of the
League but did not receive any information back about what the appeals
process included but found that Duffee and others were rejected."

It's unknown if the Wilton LWV, the only other branch sponsoring a debate in
the Fourth District, has similar reservations. President Catharine Kempson
did not return calls by press time.

Last week, Central Connecticut State University canceled the LWV's
sponsorship of a debate for prohibiting third party candidates. There, the
Green Party's Harold Burbank II, independent Thomas Winn and Republican
State Sen. David Cappiello are challenging first-term Democratic Rep. Chris
Murphy in the Fifth District.

The League has no debates scheduled for the first or third districts where
the Democratic incumbents are up against underfunded, long-shot challengers.

"We are all members of a team," says Lauricella. "But like any other
organization there are going to be times when not everyone agrees. The state
board is different than the local. We shouldn't be judged on this one
matter. I'm not the only local president who is disappointed. So is the
southeastern president. On this one issue the system didn't work well, so we
will be looking into making changes."