Third-party candidates lose bid to participate in debate

By The Associated Press

10.01.02

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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A Middlesex Superior Court judge has denied a bid by Green Party and independent candidates to participate in a gubernatorial debate tonight.

Meanwhile, a Worcester Superior Court judge has rejected a Libertarian candidate's debate lawsuit.

Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent candidate Barbara Johnson had filed a lawsuit against the sponsors of the debate, seeking to have it stopped if they were not invited to join.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Linda Giles this morning denied the request, which was the subject of a hearing yesterday afternoon.

A debate complaint filed by Libertarian candidate Carla Howell in Worcester Superior Court was also turned aside today. She had argued that she had a contract to participate that was broken and that her exclusion violated her right of free speech in her effort to reach potential voters. Howell still has a complaint pending with the Federal Communications Commission.

In their suit, Stein and Johnson had argued that the media sponsors of the debate were illegally giving free political advertising to gubernatorial candidates Shannon O'Brien and Mitt Romney by inviting them to debate while excluding three others.

"All three additional qualified candidates, Stein, Howell and Johnson, should be in the debate tomorrow," said attorney Jason Adkins yesterday. "The remedy is simple: Bring in three more mikes."

The lawsuit said that even if the debate invitations were not considered free ads, they were essentially corporate contributions to Romney and O'Brien's campaigns that were prohibited by law.

An attorney for the debate sponsors, Jonathan Albano, argued in court papers that O'Brien, a Democrat, and Romney, a Republican, were invited because they were the leading candidates.

Stein, Howell and Johnson can disagree about whether a debate is better with the two leaders or all five candidates, but that disagreement shows the government should not decide the issue, Albano said during yesterday's court hearing.

"Does democracy flourish by having the government dictate to private press organizations who shall participate in political debates?" he said. "These decisions under the First Amendment are for these media organizations to make."

In court, Giles questioned what would happen if news outlets were told how to cover the governor's race. If reporters are told whom to include in their debates, she asked, what happens if they do a simple interview with one candidate and not the others?

Adkins, the attorney for Stein and Johnson, said that when the news media host debates, they play a different role than when conducting normal interviews and daily reporting on candidates.

"What we have is the media acting as the makers of news. They're not reporting the news, they're making it," Adkins said.

The 7 p.m. debate at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is sponsored by five Boston-area television stations and The Boston Globe.

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