Didn't Raise Enough Cash
Clinton Foe Decries NY1 Debate Shutout
By HOWARD MEGDAL
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini criticized NY1 last week over the station's decision to not sponsor a debate between him and incumbent Sen. Hillary Clinton, despite polls showing him with more support than gubernatorial candidate and recent NY1 debate participant Thomas Suozzi.
The Chief-Leader/Aaron Cohen
CAN'T MAKE THE BUY-IN: Jonathan Tasini, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate because of her stance on the war with Iraq, protests the decision of NY1 not to sponsor a debate because he hasn't raised $500,000 for his campaign, despite polls showing he is doing better than Thomas R. Suozzi in his run for Governor against Eliot Spitzer.
A 70-Point Deficit
Mr. Tasini, a longtime labor leader and activist, registered 13-percent support in a recent Marist College poll, with Senator Clinton capturing 83 percent. Just 10 percent of voters chose Mr. Suozzi in his battle with Attorney General Elliot Spitzer for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination; Mr. Spitzer received 75 percent.
NY1 said that in addition to registering at least five percent in the polls, the threshold required by the League of Women Voters for its debates, a candidate must have raised or have spent at least $500,000 in order to be eligible to debate. "Rather than act as a promoter of greater speech and greater knowledge for its viewers and the public at large, NY1 is effectively acting as a censor," Mr. Tasini said at an Aug. 2 press conference. "It has decided that the price of admission to allow the voters to hear my views is half a million dollars."
But NY1 News Director Bob Hardt argued that the markers in place were necessary to prevent debates from becoming overcrowded free-for-alls.
"NY1 News is producing the most ambitious series of political debates and town hall meetings this election season," he said in a statement. "As part of the staging of these events, NY1 established criteria to identify which candidates would be invited to participate in these events. The criteria are that a candidate must poll at least five percent (including margin of error) in a recognized independent poll and would need to have spent and/or raised $500,000. All candidates who have met these criteria have been invited to participate."
Iraq His Key Issue
Mr. Tasini, who had raised $132,439 through the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission filings, said his total had since topped $150,000. He pointed out that while 13 percent of Democratic voters chose him, 70 percent in that same poll believe Iraq is the most important issue in the campaign. Of those that do, 62 percent said they would vote for an anti-war candidate, while just nine percent preferred a candidate who supported it. Ms. Clinton has voted consistently to both go to war with Iraq and fund the conflict, while Mr. Tasini has opposed it from the start.
"To NY1-Time Warner [which owns NY1], it matters very little that the majority of the Democratic primary voters actually agree with me on what the voters believe should be the main issue of the campaign: the Iraq war and occupation," Mr. Tasini said. More than 40,000 voters signed his petitions to get on the ballot, well over the 15,000 threshold needed to qualify.
He noted that he had accepted an invitation from the League of Women Voters to debate Ms. Clinton on Sept. 6, but said that Ms. Clinton had yet to agree to participate in that debate.
Ms. Clinton's campaign did not comment on Mr. Tasini's complaint or the League's invitation.
Rule Creates 'Plutocracy'
A supporter of Mr. Tasini's, author Barbara Ehrenreich, said that using a financial benchmark along with a popular one makes for "more plutocracy than democracy."
"It scares me that one can be disqualified, using financial criteria, from being heard from," Ms. Ehrenreich, who wrote the bestselling "Nickel and Dimed," said following the press conference.
Both Ms. Ehrenreich and Mr. Tasini made reference to the anti-war candidacy of Ned Lamont, whose challenge to incumbent U.S. Sen. Joseph P. Lieberman for the Democratic nomination in Connecticut was being decided as this newspaper hit the stands Aug. 8.
Mr. Lamont, after trailing Mr. Lieberman, 65 to 17 percent, in polls taken earlier this year has surged to double-digit leads in some voter surveys.
A Large, Green Gulf
Though Mr. Tasini was quick to imply that a similar climb was possible for his campaign, both he and Ms. Ehrenreich acknowledged the primary difference between the two campaigns: Mr. Lamont has already spent more than $4 million, much of it from his own pocket.
"I'm looking forward to next week, when Ned Lamont wins, and voters turn their attention to our race," Mr. Tasini said. There will be more than a month between the Connecticut primary and New York's on Sept. 12.
Regardless of the difficulties for Mr. Tasini, or any poorly-financed candidate facing a fundraising juggernaut (Ms. Clinton had raised $33 million as of June 30) Ms. Ehrenreich said, "My support of Jonathan is an example of my faith - misplaced faith, perhaps - that democracy can still work, that we can still change from the ground up."
