From the Lane campaign website:
New York 1 and the Staten Island Advance are blocking James from participating in the only televised debate for the special election to be held on May 5th.
They claim their policy is only to include the “leading candidates”, a vague and arbitrary standard that is being used here to discriminate against independent political voices. This is “horse race” election coverage at its worst.
•No polling data or other objective criteria have been used in this decision.
•James is the candidate of a ballot status party that won more votes for Governor in 2014 than the Working Families Party.
•James has been invited to all other candidate forums throughout the rest of April.
Staten Island and Brooklyn deserve a real televised debate! Sign your name below and DEMAND that James and the Green Party be included!
We demand that James Lane, the Green Party candidate for Congressional District 11, be invited to participate in the NY1/Staten Island Advance televised debate scheduled for April 14.
As the nominee of a ballot status party, and with no objective criteria for debate participation having been offered, there is no reason for James and the Green Party to be excluded.
NY1 and the Advance’s rationale that only the “leading candidates” be allowed is vague and arbitrary, and amounts to political discrimination. As news organizations, they have a responsibility to provide full coverage of this campaign, not arbitrarily exclude qualified candidates.
Staten Island and Brooklyn deserve a real debate between all of the candidates on the ballot for May 5th!
Click here to sign the petition.
I am actually surprised by this.
Both NY 1 and the Staten Island Advance have covered the LP in the past, both fairly and with reasonable exposure.
I don’t know what the GP did to piss them off and recommend that it immediately discontinue said practice.
FEC guidelines for debates for federal office require that debate sponsors have objective criteria. If this story is accurate, James Lane would benefit from having an attorney write a letter on his behalf. I recommend that James Lane contact Art Block, who is an expert on debates and federal rules, and who has plenty of experience suing over debates. Or contact law professor Mark Brown at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.