On October 23, a Florida lower state court ruled that since Public TV is sponsoring the October 24 gubernatorial debate, and since the Reform Party is a ballot-qualified party, therefore the debate cannot be held unless Reform Party gubernatorial candidate Max Linn is included. Linn is the only candidate to benefit from this ruling, since the judge excluded independent candidates. The Reform Party is the only minor party that ran any candidates for any statewide office in Florida this year, under the party label (a Libertarian is also running but he is officially an independent candidate since the Florida Libertarian Party refused to nominate anyone for Governor this year).
The case is Linn v Florida Public Broadcasting Service, cace 06-016781, Broward Co. Circuit Court. It is being appealed.
Congrats to Bev Kennedy, who did most of the work and whose legal strategy succeeded in this case!
The LPF did not refuse but was unable to nominate a governor candidate since none met its qualifications.
The independent candidate, John Smith, was recommended by the LPF, under a different procedure.
Alas, Max was not only kicked out of the debate at the 11th hour by an appelate judge, his volunteers who had paid for tickets were not allowed into the theater where the debates were held.
The legal team is working on getting him into Monday night’s debate, however.