As America's population has grown and migrated, it has become harder to use traditional grassroots campaign tactics to get our message to voters. While grassroots campaigns are still the core of Greens' organizing efforts  - our success in numerous local campaigns demonstrates this - televised debates become more critical when running statewide or larger campaigns.

While smaller-scale community candidate forums tend to be fairer to Green candidates, we have struggled to get participation in debates at the state level in many states. These debates are either organized by the two major parties, or by major media outlets that kowtow to the candidates' desires, as shown by the story from California below. The worst case is the Presidential debates, where the Republican and Democratic Parties took the debates away from the League of Women Voters in order to control third party or independent participation.

Nonetheless, it is a testament to the growing influence of the Green Party that the majority of our gubernatorial candidates this year have managed to participate in at least one televised debate. As Jesse Ventura demonstrated in Minnesota in 1998, when you get a fair chance to make your case, the voters will respond. All we ask for is a fair chance to get the message out for our ballot-qualified candidates.

Please read the stories below, and if you want fair elections where voters can see all the alternatives, let your candidates and TV stations know that two isn't enough.

Note: Color coding will be completed when the list below is relatively complete.
Red = States where Greens have been unfairly excluded.
Green = States where Greens have participated in at least one debate in 2002.

State by State:

ALASKA
Governor: Diane Benson An Oct. 16 AP story, printed in several Alaska newspapers, reported that she participated in a debate on Oct. 15 with candidates form the Democratic, Republican, and "Republican Moderate" parties, and later on the same day in a radio debate with the same opponents, plus a candidate from the Libertarian party.

CALIFORNIA
Governor: On Monday, October 7, the Los Angeles Times sponsored a televised debate between the Governor candidates, but barred Peter Miguel Camejo, the California Green Party's candidate for Governor, from both the stage and the audience. The Times excluded Camejo in acquiescence to Gov. Gray Davis, the incumbent Democrat, who had threatened to pull out of the debate if Camejo were even present in the audience.

When Peter Camejo tried to attend the debate, he was forced to leave the building in front of a large group of reporters. About 30 paid Davis demonstrators tried unsuccessfully to prevent Camejo from giving interviews by drowning him out; instead, Camejo received widespread media attention. "While I would have liked to be inside the building," said Camejo, "I have to thank the Governor for excluding me, since it resulted in 60 press interviews over the next 45 minutes."

A San Francisco Chronicle online poll all day on October 7 showed that 87% of Californians favored Camejo's participation in the debates. A recent Survey USA poll indicated 9% support for Camejo statewide. The Chronicle's poll is further reinforced by a statewide poll taken by KXTV, Sacramento, that shows 69% of the people in the state wanted Camejo to be included in the debate.

COLORADO
Governor: Colorado Gubernatorial candidate Ron Forthofer was excluded from a televised debate that was sponsored byt, among others, the local public television station. The Forthofer campaign held a protest outside of the debate attended by about 50 people. Forthofer was able to meet with a debate sponsor, but was not even allowed to watch the debate.

Also, two minor-party candidates for U.S. Senate (Libertarian Rick Stanley and American Constitution Party candidate Doug Campbell) announced a lawsuit against three Colorado newspapers and seven broadcast stations in federal court on October 11, arguing the media violated Federal Elections Commission rules. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order to block media-sponsored Senate debates unless they are allowed to participate. Stanley and Campbell claim the news organizations have kept them out of debates because they could take votes away from the Republican and Democratic candidates, and argues the news organizations used secret criteria to determine who would get publicity. 

DELAWARE
Attorney Gen: Vivian Houghton, candidate for Delaware Attorney General, was recently denied an invitation to candidates forums with the Medical Society of Delaware and the Wilmington Industrial Development Committee of 100, to the anger of her supporters after over 25 organizations included her in their forums.

IOWA 
Governor: On October 9, KTIV in Sioux City taped two half hour gubernatorial candidates' debates. The first featured Democratic incumbent Tom Vilsack and Republican challenger Doug Gross; the second featured Green Jay Robinson and Libertarian Clyde Cleveland. But Iowa Public Television, claiming that the broadcast would have been so close to a Democrat-Republican live debate that it was no longer newsworthy, refused to air the Robinson-Cleveland debates, which would have given them statewide exposure.  Since then, Green party candidate Rev. Jay Robinson, Gov. Tom Vilsack and Republican Party candidate Doug Gross met in the Scheman Building to discuss Iowa's energy future on Monday night in a forum attended by about 100 people.

MAINE
Governor: Jonathan Carter On September 23, Carter participated in the first debate of the fall season with the Democrat, the Republican, and an independent. The Democrat has agreed to participate in at least 6 other debates (at least half of which will be televised) -- however both Carter and the independent are criticizing him for "ducking" participation in other debates!

MASSACHUSETTS
Governor: Jon Keller, the moderator of an October 9 debate and a well-respected political analyst, declared on WBZ radio the following morning that Green gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein was the winner, an opinion confirmed by an online poll of viewers after the debate.

"Jill debated, and Jill won," said Patrick Keaney, Stein's campaign manager, the next day. "We have always believed that if we can get Jill in front of the voters in Massachusetts, we have as good a chance of winning as anyone. Last night's debate, and the response we've had in the office today to Jill's performance, have proven that we were right."

Members of the Massachusetts Green Party, soon to be the Green-Rainbow Party after a merger with the Rainbow Party is complete, are urging Stein's inclusion in the final televised debate on October 29 at Suffolk University.

Judge Linda Giles denied an earlier motion to order Stein's inclusion in debates, siding with the corporate media consortium's decision to bar her from the debates. In what Massachusetts Greens called an "Orwellian twist of logic," the defendants invoked freedom of speech as their justification for silencing the speech of certain candidates. 

"The not-so-subtle message here is that the law favors the privatization of our electoral process -- that giant media corporations have a right to determine who participates in debates, and who sits on the outside, looking in," said Keaney.

Treasurer: Meanwhile, James O'Keefe, the Green Party nominee for Massachusetts State Treasurer, has been invited to and has attended all state treasurer debates (one on the radio, two televised, with more to come). O'Keefe is currently polling at 8%.

MICHIGAN
Governor: Doug Campbell is scheduled to participate in a debate with the Republican on Oct. 28 (rescheduled form the 14th).  Campbell was arrested for trying to participate in a debate earlier in the year.

MINNESOTA
Governor: Ken Pentel, has been participating in the debates, based on the criteria that the Green Party qualified for "major party" status due to Nader receiving over 5% of the 2000 Minnesota vote.  (The criteria is 5% in any statewide race to receive "major party" status.  That also qualifies candidates for "partial public financing" -- Pentel is receiving about $250,000 this year).

MISSOURI
Green Party Senate candidate Daniel "Digger" Romano will appear in a debate with the Democratic, Libertarian and Republican candidate, which will be made available to radio and TV stations.

NEW MEXICO
Governor: David Bacon A Sept. 25 AP wire story reported that Bacon has now been invited to four additional televised Gubernatorial debates which include the Democrat and the Republican, and that he has accepted all of the invitations. The debates are scheduled for Oct. 15, Oct. 18, Oct. 20, and Nov. 3.

NEW YORK 
U.S. Rep: An environmental debate sponsored by the Sierra Club and the Westchester chapter of the New York League of Conservation Voters at the New City Public Library on October 13 for candidates for 17th Congressional District (parts of the Bronx, Westchester and Rockland), began with outbursts from audience members angry that Green candidate Elizabeth Shanklin was not invited. Organizers refused to admit Shanklin into the debate, but conceded her a few minutes after the main event to speak when her supporters, some of whom held placards of protest, pressed for her inclusion. 

"She is a legitimate candidate; she is on the ballot, and I think this is an affront to the democratic process," said Fred Yaeger, Shanklin's press secretary. At the end of the debate, Shanklin told those who remained that women's rights need to be at the forefront of any debate on the environment and called the session an "environmental boys club debate" between men who would likely vote to use hundreds of millions of dollars for war, instead of for environmental reform and families.

Stanley Aronowitz for Governor -- Stanley recently participated in a debate with all of the candidates on the ballot.

10.21.02 Update from NY: Last week's debate was held 10/13 in the ABC studio in NYC with all candidates on the ballot. Tomorrow's debate will be held in the CBS studio in Syracuse with all candidates on the ballot.

PENNSYLVANIA
Governor: Mike Morrill Mike participated in a debate with the Democrat, the Republican, and the Libertarian on Sept. 19 at Penn State Univ.  Republican candidate Fisher has since demanded that both the Green
and Libertarian candidate be barred from future debates.

U.S. Rep: In Erie, Pennsylvania, Green Party District 3 Congressional candidate AnnDrea Benson may get a chance to debate incumbent Republican Phil English. English has laid down some conditions and has now demanded an apology from Benson, claiming she has misrepresented his campaign. Representatives of the two will meet to discuss the terms.

Update: Mike Morrill has been excluded from a televised debate hosted by WPXI TV in Pittsburgh (10.26). Since the summer, the Morrill campaign has tried to get a satisfactory explanation from WPXI for his exclusion.  WPXI gave the Morrill campaign various reasons during that period.  WPXI staff gave various criteria, citing a non-existent federal law that they claimed mandated excluding Morrill, and arbitrary polling numbers ranging from 5 to 10 to 15 percent. None of the reasons stated today had ever been published anywhere, nor were they ever sent to the candidates.

TEXAS
Governor: Voters didn't get a chance to hear the views of Rahul Mahajan (G) or Jeff Daiell (L) two of four gubernatorial candidates on the ballot this election season at either the October 9 statewide televised debate in Houston or the October 24^th "Texas Debates" in Dallas. Saying only that they "didn't meet the requirements" (imposed arbitrarily), KHOU-TV and the Houston Chronicle shut Mahajan and Daiell out of the first debate and KERA-TV did the same for the second.

"These exclusions are another nail in democracy's coffin," said Mahajan. "What they say is that candidates without millions of dollars have no chance to get their views out to the majority of voters. Since the lions share of political donations comes from the wealthiest 1% of the population, this means that candidates must either be independently wealthy or craft their programs to appeal to the wealthy. A system where the wealthy act as gatekeepers, deciding who is viable and who isn't, is not democracy."

Texas's ballot-access laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, requiring collection of the signatures of 1% of registered voters in a six-week period. The Greens got on the ballot through a massive volunteer effort in 2000, and it is their position that any party that has earned ballot status has earned the right to have its candidates in the debates.

WISCONSIN
Governor: Jim Young Jim participated in a debate with the Democrat, the Republican, and the Libertarian on Oct. 16.  Young proposed raising sales taxes to help the elderly pay property taxes on their homes and said corporate income taxes should be tied to whether companies pay workers "living wages." He also said that the Milwaukee area needs a light rail system that would run "right down the middle of the freeway corridors," in addition to highways. Young said no "new miles" of highways should be built, however. Young also questioned the president's request to attack Iraq. Noting that he is a member of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Young said America must "build a stronger international community" and added, "There are other options still out there on the table."

Young will be participating in a televised statewide debate with the Republican incumbent and the Libertarian on October 29th (the Democrat, Doyle, is not going to participate).  Additionally, Lt. Gov. candidate, Jeff Peterson, has been in several televised debates now.