Call for Candidates to Participate in Debates Proposed by CDC

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Following Court Ruling, Civic Leaders Call on Candidates to Participate in Debates Proposed by Citizens' Debate Commission

8/16/2004 12:09:00 PM

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, civic leaders and elected officials across the country called on President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry to participate in the presidential debates proposed by the genuinely nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission and to reject the presidential debates proposed by the unsuitable Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), after a Federal Court on Thursday ordered the Federal Election Commission to open a full investigation into whether the CPD acted in a "partisan manner" when sponsoring the 2000 presidential debates.

On Thursday, August 12, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., found that the FEC acted "contrary to law" in dismissing a complaint claiming that the CPD is a partisan organization and, therefore, ineligible under federal election law to sponsor presidential debates. (A copy of the decision can be found at http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/04-731.pdf) "This ruling casts a dark cloud over the legitimacy of the CPD to sponsor the upcoming 2004 debates," said Jason Adkins, co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "It is time for the CPD to step aside and allow a truly non- partisan organization sponsor the national presidential debates in accordance with federal law."

Today, the truly nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission sent official invitations to the Bush/Cheney and Kerry/Edwards campaigns for the nominees to participate in five legally sound presidential debates and one legally sound vice-presidential debate at colleges and universities around the country. The invitations -- available at http://www.opendebates.org/letter.html -- were signed by dozens of civic leaders, including former FEC General Counsel Larry Noble, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Tom Gerety of the Brennan Center for Justice, Heritage Foundation co-founder Paul Weyrich, former talk-show host Phil Donahue, Jehmu Greene of Rock the Vote, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), Bay Buchanan of the American Cause, former Senator Eugene McCarthy, executive producer of the 1996 presidential debates Bob Asman, TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, Stuart Comstock-Gay of the National Voting Rights Institute, Joan Mandle of Democracy Matters, Norman Dean of Friends of the Earth, former Congressman and chair of the Center for Voting and Democracy John B. Anderson, Nick Nyhart of Public Campaign, and Harvard Law professor Jon Hanson.

"For the sake of democracy and voter education, the nonpartisan Citizens' Debate Commission must replace the bipartisan CPD, which fails to comply with federal law and fails to serve voters' interests," said George Farah, executive director of Open Debates and a member of the Citizens Debate Commission......cont'd

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