This is the letter I sent to the organizers of the UD/DFM candidate debates regarding their exclusion of ballot qualified Libertarian and Green candidates: Ms. Boudreau, I have noted with extreme disappointment that the University of Delaware and Delaware First Media have again chosen to exclude ballot-qualified Green and Libertarian Party candidates from this seasons debates. I am formally requesting that the debate organizers revisit and reverse this decision. There was, perhaps, a case to be made for this exclusion in 2012, when none of those candidates polled above 1%. This year, however, UD polling revealed that Green Andrew Groff is polling at 6% in the Senatorial race, Libertarian Scott Gesty is polling at 7% in the House race, and Green Bernie August is polling at 4% in the House race. These numbers represent huge gains in support over the past two years. It should be pointed out that the GOP challengers in these race are polling significantly weaker numbers than the nominees of two years ago. In the House race, for example, Ms. Izzo is not even within shouting distance of 20%, and--in fact--Mr. Gesty is far closer to her numbers than she is to Mr. Carneys. I recognize that the UD/DFM debates rely on the Pew Debate Standards Advisory Project for inclusion criteria. And, given that the debates are your commercial property, you have every legal right to do so. However, I would suggest that, ethically, you should be paying attention to ALL of the findings of the Project, to wit: Should Third-Party Candidates be Included? KEY FINDING: Voters are much more likely to include non-major party candidates in debates than to exclude them. One of the stickiest issues of staging political candidate debates in general elections is whether to include non-major party candidates, such as nominees of the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, the Natural Law Party, and the Reform Party. A majority of the voters surveyed (53%) said candidates from these parties should ALWAYS be included in general election debates [emphasis added]. In addition, 39% think third-party candidates should only be included if they have a reasonable chance to win the election. In total, nearly nine-of-10 voters think non-major third-party candidates should have at least some access to candidate debates. Only one-out-of-20 voters (5%) said flatly that non-major party candidates should never be included. Voters under 30 (61%) and independents (59%) are the two groups most likely to want non-major party candidates to always be included in debates [p. 89]. If, in fact, Delaware First Media is interested in reporting the news rather than in influencing the campaign, I would respectfully suggest that your existing standards actually flout the Pew findings about what voters want to see. I would also suggest that by snubbing ballot-qualified candidates who have, over two years increased their support by multiples of between 4-7 times, you are effectively providing free campaign commercials for the Democratic and Republican candidates rather than engaging in a legitimate civic process. This is a particularly disturbing outcome, given that Senator Coons and Congressman Carney both serve as members of the Center for Political Communications Advisory Council. The perception of conflict of interest seems difficult to discount, especially when your actions can be credibly portrayed as insulating board members of your own organization from the full gamut of political debate in order to improve their outcomes at the polls. I do not like having to make that insinuation, but the facts appear to speak for themselves--or would if our local media were interested in reporting them. Please rethink this decision. STEVEN NEWTON Professor of History and Political Science Delaware State University (Please note that I have not used my DSU email for this communication because I have also identified myself as a candidate, and to do so would be a violation of Delaware campaign law.) Candidate, 22nd District State Representative New Castle County Chair, Libertarian Party of Delaware
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 02:37:36 +0000
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