- Presidential Debates « Our America Initiative Announces Challenge to Commission on Presidential Debates
January 7, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Hunter
Media@OurAmericaInitiative.com
Plaintiffs, Legal Team Announced for Challenge to Commission on
Presidential Debates
2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joe Hunter
Media@OurAmericaInitiative.com
Plaintiffs, Legal Team Announced for Challenge to Commission on
Presidential Debates
2012
Libertarian and Green Parties Candidates Join to Demand Greater
Inlusiveness General Election Debates
January 7, 2015, Salt Lake City, UT -- The 2012
presidential and vice-presidential nominees of both the Libertarian and
Green parties are joining forces to challenge the Commission on
Presidential Debates and its use of selection criteria that limit
participation in general election presidential debates to the
Republican and Democratic nominees.
The Our America Initiative, a non-profit advocacy organization, is
coordinating the legal challenge. In addition to announcing the
plaintiffs in the legal action, Senior Advisor for Our America
Initiative, Ron Nielson, also announced the legal team that will handle
the lawsuit. The plaintiffs will be represented by Rocky Anderson,
former Salt Lake City mayor, 2012 Justic Party presidential nominee,
and respected public interest attorney, and Bruce Fein, a
nationally-known constitutional lawyer who served as Associate Deputy
Attorney General and General Counsel of the Federal Communications
Commission under President Reagan.
In addition to 2012 Libertarian presidential and vice-presidential
nominees Gov. Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray (Ret.) and Green Party
nominees Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala, plaintiffs in the lawsuit will
also include the candidates’ campaign organizations and both the
Libertarian and Green national parties. When finalized, the
lawsuit
will be filed in federal court in Washington, DC.
The legal challenge will maintain that the Commission on Presidential
Debates, a private organization, formed by the chairs of the Democratic
and Republican parties, unfairly and intentionally limits participation
in the nationally-televised debates to the Democratic and Republican
nominees -- placing other national party nominees at a severe and
unjust disadvantage.
The proposed remedy will be that the debates include candidates who are
legally qualified to serve and whose names appear on enough states’
ballots to potentially secure a majority in the Electoral College.
In
2012, that threshold would have allowed participation by the
Libertarian nominee Johnson and the Green Party’s Stein, as well as the
two parties’ vice-presidential nominees.
Nielson stated, "Broadening the debates to include other qualified
candidates will dramatically and democratically change the discussion
on national issues by including opinions and solutions that are not
currently being heard."
Commenting on the planned litigation, Anderson, who ran for President
as the Justice Party candidate in 2012, said, “Having been through the
process, I have seen first-hand the extent to which the campaign
process, including the presidential debates, is manipulated to
constrain meaningful, diverse political dialogue and to rob voters of
the opportunity to hear points of view and information often at odds
with the insipid and substantially identical speaking points offered by
the two major-party candidates, particulary on matters relating to
foreign policy, national security, protections against Wall Street
abuses, and civil and human rights atrocities. The CPD’s exclusive
control of the nationally-televised debates serves to disenfranchise
the majority of Americans who believe that neither the Republican nor
Democratic party represents them.”
Fein, a noted constitutional lawyer, added, "We believe federal courts
will be alarmed that two private organizations with ulterior motives,
the Republican and Democratic parties, dictate the presidential debate
agenda for the entire electorate by intentionally excluding third party
or independent candidate participation. The consequence is
political
stagnation. It is universally acknowledged that exclusion from
the
Super Bowl of debates is the death knell for a presidential candidate
of any stripe."
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