Thursday, October 14, 2010
 
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Green candidate Whitney wants in on gov debates

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[October 14, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- Four gubernatorial debates remain in the run-up to Nov. 2, but three of those debates will feature only the two front-runners: Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington.

HardwareGreen Party nominee Rich Whitney will be alongside Quinn and Brady in a debate that will be broadcast from a TV station at Southern Illinois University on Thursday night.

But Whitney said the Illinois public is losing out from his exclusion from the other three debates.

"This is supposed to be about the voters. How can voters make the best choice as to who the best candidate is in the race unless they're given a fair opportunity to hear the perspectives of all the candidates put to the test of debate?" he said.

Whitney said he would like all candidates, including Libertarian Party candidate Lex Green and independent candidate Scott Lee Cohen, to take part in the debates.

But Whitney was quick to add that he has a stronger claim for being included because of his performance in the 2006 gubernatorial election, when he won more than 10 percent of the popular vote.

Exterminator

Jan Czarnik, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Illinois, disagrees that Whitney should be automatically included in the debate. The organization is sponsoring one of the gubernatorial debates and determined that Quinn and Brady were the only candidates to gain enough public support.

According to the league's guidelines, a candidate had to get 10 percent of support in an independent, nonpartisan poll featuring all gubernatorial candidates no sooner than 30 days before the election and at least five days before the election.

The only poll that would fit into the guidelines under that definition would be a poll conducted by Suffolk University, a private institution in Boston, Mass. According to that poll, Whitney received 3 percent support from those polled.

Czarnik said the threshold helped the organization determine the candidates with the most public support, which led debate organizers to invite Brady and Quinn.

"One of these candidates is going to be the next governor of Illinois. And the purpose of these debates is to compare and contrast the positions and the beliefs and the qualifications among the candidates who are seriously in contention," she said.

Elmhurst College in suburban Chicago is also sponsoring one of the remaining gubernatorial debates.

Desiree Chen, a spokeswoman for the college, said the college adhered to a similar threshold to the one the League of Women Voters used for determining candidates for the debate.

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She noted the university had invited all five gubernatorial candidates to the campus to speak with students.

"Rich Whitney is the only one who has turned us down. We were told by his campaign that he was too busy. So I don't quite understand... We gave him the opportunity to come and speak with our students and meet with our classes and he turned us down," she said.

Brady visited the campus in September, while the university is still in discussion about campus visits with the campaigns of Quinn, Cohen and Green.

Whitney said he and his supporters will not back down from the debate snubs. His campaign has already produced a video calling for debate sponsors to allow his participation in the debates.

"And if pressure and persuasion doesn't work, we will make them pay a political price by conducting street protests during any illegitimate debates that go on without including me," he said. "This is part of our larger fight to get our message out and we will win that struggle, and we're still very much in the fight to win this election."

A list of gubernatorial debates remaining (debate start times are approximate):

  • Thursday, Oct. 14, 8 p.m., at WSIU studios with state Sen. Bill Brady, Gov. Pat Quinn and Rich Whitney

  • Sunday, Oct. 17, 8 p.m., at Elmhurst College with state Sen. Bill Brady and Gov. Pat Quinn

  • Wednesday, Oct. 20, 7 p.m., at WLS-TV (ABC7 Chicago) studios in Chicago with state Sen. Bill Brady and Gov. Pat Quinn

  • Thursday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m. at City Club of Chicago with state Sen. Bill Brady and Gov. Pat Quinn

[Illinois Statehouse News; By KEVIN LEE]

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