Green Party gubernatorial candidate Stanley Aronowitz said today that it was time to reclaim democracy from the two major parties and announced that he will participate in all Gubernatorial debates during the general election - whether invited or not.
"It is time to dismantle the barricades to democracy that have been erected by the two major parties. The United States Supreme Court elected Bush as President, they still couldn't figure out last week how to count the democrats' votes in Florida, and only billionaires and special interests are allowed to participate in the electoral process. There can be no democracy when the political candidates are denied the right to debate the real issues," stated Aronowitz, a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.
In New Jersey, Green Party Senate candidate Ted Glick was recently arrested for insisting that he be allowed to participate in a debate with the two major party candidates. Aronowitz said that he and the Greens would organize even larger protests if the major parties and the debate sponsors sought to exclude him.
Aronowitz particularly chided McCall for balking at the proposal by Pataki to allow all the candidates to participate in the debates. Aronowitz noted that when Pataki challenged Mario Cuomo, Cuomo participated in a debate open to all the candidates while Pataki did not. "It is clear that Pataki only supports third party candidates in the debate because he thinks it will help him. But it happens to be the right position and McCall should agree to participate," added Aronowitz.
Aronowitz said the candidates need to offer the voters real solutions on issues such universal health care, resolving the state budget crisis, the death penalty, war on drugs, campaign finance reform, and environmental and energy issues.
Aronowitz noted that in Minnesota, Jesse Ventura was at 8% in the polls when he was allowed in the debates for Governor. He doubled his percentage after each debate and eventually won the election. The national Commission onf Presidential Debates recently reached a financial settlement with Ralph Nader for excluding him from the 2000 Presidential debates. A July 2000 Fox News poll found that 64 percent of Americans thought that Nader and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan should be included in the debates, and 73 percent think a four-way debate with those candidates would be "more interesting."
