Last week, Larry Reinsch, star performer of RocktheDebates.org, managed to engage Rudy Giuliani on whether Giuliani would be willing to participate in inclusive general election debates. Reinsch, who lives in Iowa, has been attempting to ask all the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates this question. RocktheDebates criteria is that anyone running for president in the general election who is on the ballot in states containing a majority of the electoral college, should be included in general election debates, or at least one of them.

Reinsch asked the question. Giuliani responded, “It’s not for me to fix that. I mean the reality is that if I get nominated as the candidate of the Republican Party, I’ll participate in debates. I’ll participate in debates with the Democratic candidate, and the reality is, I have to focus on that. Once I become the candidate of the party.”

Reinsch attempted to bring the focus back on the question. Giuliani broke in, “I don’t know…I don’t know which parties would be legitimate, which parties wouldn’t be, who has some support, who doesn’t, what the rules of the debate are…It’s all in the negotiations prior to the debates…I never make a commitment I can’t keep…”

Reinsch: “But you could try! The Republican and Democratic Party are the two halves of the negotiation, and typically it’s the candidate on either side that sets 50% of the rules…so if you were to try, it would go a long ways to rectify this violation of our Democracy.”

Giuliani: Well, I’ll make an effort to make sure I debate. I enjoy debating. I debated this morning on one hour sleep. So, if somebody makes the effort to come here and debate on one hour sleep…I’m willing to debate most anytime anyplace…but as far as the rules are concerned, I can’t in advance tell you what they should be, until I see who the candidate is, what the Democratic candidate is going to do…there are a lot of rules that must be worked out. As I said, I never make promises that I can’t keep, so I can’t give you that information right now.”

In 2002, the Arizona Libertarian Party filed a federal lawsuit against a law that mandated that the party must allow independents to vote in its primary. The party’s members are far outnumbered by the number of registered independents in the state. The party had an extremely close primary contest for Governor in 2002. Both candidates were willing and able to campaign among the approximately 18,000 registered Libertarians, but neither had enough resources to try to campaign among the hundreds of thousands of independent voters. The party won the case in U.S. District Court on August 6, 2002.

However, after the primary was over, in 2003, the 9th circuit told the U.S. District Court to re-do the case. The 9th circuit said that while it is obvious that the party can’t be forced to let independents vote in its primary for party officers, the question is not so clear on whether the party can block independents from voting in its primary for public office. The 9th circuit said the lower court should analyze each matter separately. Since then, the U.S. District Court has not ruled.

According to the judge’s law clerk, the judge is working on the decision, so it should be out this year. In the meantime, Arizona State Representative Steve Gallardo (D-Phoenix), who is probably not aware of the case, has called on the legislature to pass a law letting independents vote in presidential primaries. The existing law forcing parties to let independents to vote in their primaries does not pertain to presidential primaries. Gallardo hopes that the Governor will call a special session of the legislature this month, and if that happens, he will try to make that change.

On August 31, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee became the first candidate for the Republican presidential nomination to endorse full voting rights for the District of Columbia. He said, “They’re American citizens. They pay taxes and it just doesn’t seem right that someone could be even partially disenfranchised.” He endorsed HR 1905, the bill that would give D.C. a voting member of the House of Representatives, combined with an additional seat for Utah. HR 1905 passed the House on April 19, and is likely to be considered by the Senate when Congress returns on September 4.