|
Back
|
League Not Supporting Debates
Albany Times Union
October 18, 2006 at 10:16 am by Elizabeth Benjamin |
This may be old news to some of you - especially you Greens out there.
I’m not sure how I missed the League of Women Voters of New York State’s Oct. 13 announcement that it was withdrawing its sponsorship of the AG and U.S. Senate debates because the media hosts refused to allow Green Party candidates to participate.
“The voters of New York State deserve better,” said League President Marcia Merrins in the press release.
That means the Oct. 15 and Oct. 17 AG debates were not League-sponsored, as I had previously believed.
Nor will the second head-to-head between U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and her GOP challenger, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, be a League event. (The first, which is set to take place this Friday in Rochester, was not a League debate to begin with).
The League’s requirement for debate participation is whether a candidate can successfully get on the ballot - no poll numbers or fundraising threshold, unlike some media outlets. Thus, in the League’s mind, Green candidates Rachel Treichler (AG) and Howie Hawkins (U.S. Senate) should be allowed to face off against the major party contenders.
Merrins said in a press release that the League adopted its policy for candidate inclusion in debates before the election season began to “keep debates free of the vagaries of the political process.”
Once a candidate complied with this criteria, the League would not sponsor a debate in which that candidate was excluded because “to act otherwise would violate the League’s fundamental belief in the public’s right to know.”
|
| |
 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
|
|
