West Virginia Public Television will hold a second televised U.S. Senate debate. The second one will include all five candidates who are on the ballot. The first one was limited to just the Democratic and Republican nominees. See this press release.
The five candidates are the nominees of the Democratic, Republican, Green (Mountain), Libertarian, and Constitution Parties. Thanks to Jeff Becker for the link.
I am surprised but pleased.
My only question, why did they not invite the 3rd party nominees to the 1st debate?
Sounds like another debate in Montana where the Public television station said we have given the Libertarians airtime in the first debate but won’t mention 3rd parties in other debates, where only the two main parties were invited. It’s all in the name of democracy they say.
Letters to the editor, folks. Our supporters (Constitution Party of WVa) wrote and submitted over 350 of them with at least 30 (that we know of) getting published in papers all across the state. This along with emails, phone calls, online comments, and radio show call-ins really put the pressure on the media – so much so that they scheduled the three minor party candidates as guests on the Friday morning “Viewpoint” political radio program…
and then things REALLY got going when all three candidates tag-teamed and took up half the show (which the media expected to be a live 3rd party debate) to hammer the issue of the Fake Debate from all different angles. This was then followed by another half hour of pundits, “experts,” and academia talking about minor parties and how they are always hosed by the media.
The bottom line is that this didn’t happen by chance. We MADE IT HAPPEN. More to come. Stay tuned!
That sounds epic, I might have to see if Youtube has a video showing that team-up. But yeah, I’ve noticed this year that some media outlets and debate organizations CAN be moved if pressure is applied in sufficient quantities and/or ways. Here in southern Illinois, a fellow Green (I’m a Green) wrote to the League of Women Voters to see about including our write-in candidate for the 115th state House district. Although the League couldn’t/wouldn’t let him in the debate, they did give him three minutes to speak at the end, which Gary Shepherd used to bring home the fact that both ruling party candidates were receiving large donations from sources of questionable decency (ie, Mike Madigan, etc), among a few other issues he quickly addressed. It was a darn good showing for three minutes. Imagine if he had been in the debate in its entirety though…
That and a little good old fashioned protesting: http://www.wchstv.com/news/features/eyewitness-news/stories/Third-Party-Senate-Candidates-Angry-About-Not-Being-Allowed-To-Debate-45867.shtml#.VDS-6fldUa4