The June 5, 2012 California primary ballot will list all 24 candidates running for U.S. Senate. The list includes six Democrats, including incumbent Dianne Feinstein; fourteen Republicans; no independent candidates; two members of the Peace & Freedom Party; one member of the American Independent Party; one member of the Libertarian Party.

With so many candidates from many parties on the same ballot, there has been little discussion of a U.S. Senate debate in California this year. Some individuals have tried to organize debates. On March 12, in Redding, California, one U.S. Senate debate was held. The only three participants in that debate were Don Grundmann of the American Independent Party, and two Republicans, Oscar Braun and Nachum Shifren.

Another debate will be held at 10 a.m. on April 24, outside the offices of the Desert Sun, the daily newspaper for Palm Springs. The location is 750 N. Gene Autry Trail. So far, the only two Senate candidates who have agreed to debate are Orly Taitz, a Republican, and Marsha Feinland of the Peace & Freedom Party. However, other U.S. Senate candidates are invited. The debate organizer is Earl Ammerman, whose e-mail is singlepayeractionnevada@gmail.com and whose phone is 775-843-9099. See this story about the upcoming debate.

Senator Dianne Feinstein has not participated in any candidate debates since the 2000 campaign, when she debated her Republican opponent, Tom Campbell. That year, Campbell also debated the Green Party nominee, Medea Benjamin, but Feinstein did not participate in that debate. In the 2006 campaign she refused to debate her Republican opponent, Dick Mountjoy.

One of the candidates in this year’s U.S. Senate campaign, Colleen Fernald, a Democrat, has suspended her campaign because of the sudden unexpected death of her teen-age daughter on April 20.