From Matt Murphy at the Lowell Sun:
Struggling to gain traction among voters, the three non-party candidates running for governor could face even longer odds as Election Day draws near and their lack of standing in the polls starts to jeopardize their participation in several high-profile events.
Independents Evan Falchuk and Jeffrey McCormick were crying foul Monday after being uninvited to participate in a debate in Worcester Oct. 27 to be televised live on New England Cable News and WNEU-TV-Telemundo Boston in Spanish.
Their exclusion from the debate means the three non-party candidates will get to share the stage with Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Charlie Baker in just one of the next four televised debates on the calendar. That debate will take place tonight at 7, live on WBZ-TV.
Andy – that’s because people put more thought into sports than into public policy.
“Richard Winger October 8, 2014 at 1:06 am
They think of a debate as a sporting event (and not a team sport). So they envision two people “in the ring”, as though it were a boxing match or a wrestling match.”
I bet that there’d be a lot more outrage over stuff like this if it were a sporting event, like say a football game, or a basketball game, or a baseball game. If this were the playoffs, and one or more teams who qualified for the playoffs were being prevented from playing in the playoffs because the two most well known teams refused to play against them, there’d be public outrage, maybe even rioting in the streets.
They think of a debate as a sporting event (and not a team sport). So they envision two people “in the ring”, as though it were a boxing match or a wrestling match.
I’m going to have to figure out how to get out of this Libertarian bubble that I live in. In my world, it simply doesn’t make any sense to exclude any ballot qualified candidates from debates. I don’t understand how so many organizations and people can see it differently. I’d like to be able to wrap my head around that.
Thanks for the additional info.
People who don’t read the entire story may not realize that all five ballot-listed candidates are debating each other tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 7) and they all debated each other last month as well. If tonight’s debate goes well for the three non-major-party candidates, maybe they will get re-invited into the Oct. 27 debate. Anyway, at least some of the Massachusetts gubernatorial debates have been inclusive.