As reported earlier, Gary Johnson and James Gray, the 2012 Libertarian national ticket, sued the Commission on Presidential Debates last year. The CPD rules say that anyone who is on the ballot in states containing a majority of electoral college votes, and who is at 15% in three national polls, may be included in the general election presidential debates.
Last year, several polls were commissioned in which the respondents were asked whether they prefer President Obama, or Gary Johnson. No other candidates were mentioned. The results of all three polls showed Johnson far above 15%. The results of these polls were presented to the Commission on Presidential Debates, but the Commission ignored them and did not invite Johnson or Gray into the debates.
The lawsuit is still alive. On September 4, both sides presented a joint report to U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Olguin, over whether the Johnson campaign is entitled to engage in discovery. The Johnson campaign seeks to learn the manner in which the criteria for debate inclusion were set, a history of any changes in the criteria, and information about communications between the Commission and the major party national committees. Defendants want the case dismissed without having permitted any discovery. Probably the next event in this lawsuit will be a ruling from the Judge over whether discovery may go forward. The case is Johnson v Commission on Presidential Debates, central district of California, 8:12-cv-1600.
On the one hand, I’m cheering for Gary as he takes on these f@scist blockheads. But on the other, it just seems to me like a huge waste of time, effort, and money trying to sue these guys after the election is long over. Help me out here.
I think he’s basically trying to get a ruling that will benefit him or any future 3rd party candidates who seek to enter the CPD debates in future elections, or at the very least expose the CPD as a bipartisan, collusive, choreographed farce.
Smiley Face, the real “huge waste of time, effort and money” is no one doing anything about this electoral monopoly that the Reps/Dems have carved out for themselves. Johnson is dong the heavy lifting here. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy, quick and cheap. If so, it would’ve been done already.
Take ’em down Gary!
Don’t forget about what Jill Stein did last fall. She went out and protested at the front gate of one of these farcical debates and got detained for hours. The incident was even reported in some of the mainstream news outlets, which helped bring further attention to the issue among people who aren’t total zombies to the Democrats and Republicans.
We’re going to need both legal challenges and protests in this.
Here, I’ll help you out.
They’re doing it to potentially change the way presidential debates are conducted in FUTURE elections, with the hopes of disbanding the corrrupt two party monopoly on our political system. They’re doing it to potentially uncover any blatant corruption through the process of discovery. They’re doing it to potentially set a legal precendent against such corruption and unfair practices in the future.
It might be a longshot, but I commend them for fighting the good fight – that’s the only way things will ever change. It’s unfortunate that people only think that things like this are important every four years during a major election…it’s no wonder why the system is as corrupt as it is – everyone is too shortsighted and apathetic to do anything about it!
Thanks for all of the responses, guys. That really helped.
GO GARY GO!!!!!!!!!! 😀
The nice thing about this is it demonstrates Johnson was not using the LP as a personal vehicle for his own credentials/ego, the way Root and Barr did. Even if some of his campaign handlers like Roger Stone were pimping him for cash, and even if he eventually runs as a GOP candidate, his heart is with the liberty movement it seems.