In reponse to a certain TU blog post:
New Paltz, NY 8/15/06: “Are minor party candidates
being quietly excluded from the fall debates, by not
being asked to participate?” asks Libertarian
Candidate for Governor John Clifton. In response to
his (and other minor parties) not being officially
notified of the announced debate schedule, Clifton is
formally requesting inclusion in the fall candidate
debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters of New
York (LWVNY), in order to find out. Libertarian
candidate for Attorney General Chris Garvey has also
formally requested inclusion.
The entire slate of Libertarian statewide candidates
are expected to be on the fall ballot following the
conclusion of the petition drive ending on August 22.
“I smell a two-party rat,” says Clifton. “The standard
for the debates should be, is the candidate on the
ballot? I had to learn of the schedule from third hand
sources. The Libertarian Party has long-established a
strong “modicum of support” in this state through
consistently achieving ballot status over the past 30
years. There is no reason why myself or the party
should not have been at least informally contacted by
LWVNY.”
Should LWVNY not include all candidates, Clifton and
other Libertarians are encouraging the media to hold
independent debates, such as ones offered by Alan
Chartock (who interviewed Clifton in July on WAMC’s
Capital Connections) and other alternative media
forums. Clifton says “effectively, the LWVNY,
Commission on Presidential Debates, et al, often
simply act as an pseudo-official front to exclude
minor party candidates. They exist to take the flack
for excluding that properly should be directed at the
Democrats and Republicans.”
“Instead of launching fruitless attempts to reverse
any ‘official’ exclusion, we should challenge the
DemGOP masters (Spitzer and Faso) to debates outside
of the auspices of LWVNY. There is nothing stopping
Chartock and other media from promoting non-LWV
debates with all candidates.” Clifton is also
interested in holding third party debates with the
Green Party candidate for Governor, similar to one
held between Presidential candidates Badnarik and Cobb
in New York in 2004.
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