Friday, September 29, 2006

League of Women Voters Invites Thornton to Oct. 9th Debate

Update: Never mind--this is apparently not going forward after all.

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The Thornton campaign is saying that the League of Women Voters, which is co-sponsoring the October 9th gubernatorial debate in New London, has invited their candidate to participate alongside Gov. Jodi Rell and John DeStefano.

Thornton was jubilant, according to a press release from the Thornton campaign:
"Apparently, the Rell and DeStefano camps thought they could impede democracy," Thornton said. "They were afraid that I might pull some shenanigans in the debates, so they decided to keep me out. Their fear is correct. I am going to talk about the issues that matter to Connecticut voters and in today's restrictive political environment, talking about the issues of concern for Connecticut voters is a shenanigan."

Hopefully, this means that all of the candidates for governor will, in fact be on the same state at the same time. I can't imagine that the DeStefano or Rell campaigns would back out of the debate at this point.

Good for the League of Women Voters. It's a shame they don't moderate national presidential debates any longer.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great. The big debate will get diluted by some unelectable kook.

When was the last time a CT Green won anything?

Anonymous said...

Don't bank on it, Genghis. My sources tell me Rell was OK with it but Slap went absolutely BUGSH*T and said DeStefano would pull out. I hear the Day is gonna boot the League and poor Thornton gets the shaft from DeStefano AGAIN.

ken krayeske said...

This comes to me via Derek Slap.
Funny thing is that on the Day's website, it still says the League is involved.
The text of the email:
"The Day will sponsor a head-to-head debate Oct. 9 between Gov. M. Jodi Rell
and Democratic Mayor John DeStefano, as previously agreed by the candidates
and the newspaper. On Friday, the League of Women Voters determined that, by its standards, Clifford Thornton, the Green Party candidate for governor,
was eligible to participate. The Day disagreed with the League regarding
whether Mr. Thornton met all of the League's standards for inclusion. After
consulting with the League and both the Rell and DeStefano campaigns, the
newspaper and League agreed that the League would not be a debate
co-sponsor. The Day decided to proceed with the debate as originally planned
with the major party candidates."

Anonymous said...

Gehghis,

Sometimes it's better to be right then to be first.

The absence of any links makes this look to me like yu were played by Ken Krayeske.

Anonymous said...

I believe all Political candidates should be included in the debates.

Who is Derek Slap anyway Just an ex Channel 30 newsman who is now a mouthpiece lackey for John DeStefano.

From what I have seen of Derek Slap he is just a pretty boy and he should of stayed at Channel 30.

Good for The New London League of Women Voters to allow Cliff Thornton in the debate.

Anonymous said...

word I hear from AP is that Rell's campaign said they'd show up, whether it was 1, 2, or 10 candidates.

Anonymous said...

what is Team "we're down 16 or 32 points" afraid of , anyway?

Maybe Derek can get a job in a smaller market after this gig, maybe Utica

Anonymous said...

Just another example of the bullying tactics used by the DeStefano campaign to get its way. If DeStefano were truly as confident as he pretends to be publicly, he'd have no issue with other debate participants.

Kudos to the League of Women Voters for standing up to both the DeStefano campaign and The Day and doing what's right -- allowing an open, public and inclusive debate of the issues by all the candidates running for office.

Shame on the DeStefano campaign.

And for the record, I'm a registered Democrat who will NOT be voting for DeStefano on 11/7.

Anonymous said...

Team DeStefano needs to allow all Governor Candidates in these debates.I agree with Rell on this.

He is 33 points down this trying to make this a one on one event makes DeStefano look very bad.

Henry Fernandez needs to get his head out of the sand I see that DeStefano Campaign is still poorly organized and this is why they will not win in November

Anonymous said...

This proves my point from earlier, that DeStefano "agreed" to minor party candidates solely in order to be able to bitch at Rell for only wanting two debates.

DeStefano was acting in bad faith all along with the Green Party yet they still stick to him like an infant to its mother's breast. Idiots.